Jewellery maker finds her creative spark — again

[attach]1739[/attach]When Rita Tesolin goes to Las Vegas, she wears cowboy boots and one of her own handmade turquoise necklaces. People take one look and ask her which Native tribe she’s from.

Her response: she’s from a tribe called Toronto.

It’s a joke, but in a way its not. Native art and motifs have inspired Tesolin for years, from the Noval Morrisseau inspired-paintings she did in her 20s to the turquoise-encrusted belt buckles and jewellery she designs today.

The Yonge Street and Sheppard Avenue resident is known for designing distinctive statement-piece necklaces under her label, Rita Tesolin. Her creations have graced the photo spreads of countless Canadian fashion magazines in addition to selling in boutiques, like
Bayview Village’s Ross Mayer, across the country.

It’s a fame that was hard-won, but oddly enough a career calling that the designer never really seriously considered until about seven years ago.

Tesolin’s history with jewellery started when she was working at the jewellery counter at Simpson’s as a teen. Her sister designed knitwear with leather and suede appliqué and would give her scraps that she in turn fashioned into jewellery and hair bows.

It was always just a hobby for her, even after a major jewellery retailer and wholesaler starting buying her pieces.

“I got so busy I had to quit Simpson’s,” she says.

By the time she was 18 she was supplying 22 stores across Canada. Still in high school, Tesolin would do the majority of work in the summers at the cottage.

“I never saw myself as a designer or anything,” she says. “My focus was on my education.”

But when she was at York University studying to become a lawyer, her dad got sick. Her priorities shifted like that, she says, and between school and her dad she had no time for jewellery making.

“I just let it go like nothing,” she says.

“He was sick all the time. Who cares about jewellery making?”

When her father eventually succumbed to his illness, Tesolin says she lost her creativity.

“It went with him.”

It took a while to get it back. Inspired by the artistic works of Morrisseau and others, she eventually started painting.

“There was something in me that needed to come out,” she says. “That was my creative outlet.”

Today she says people offer her lot of money for those paintings. She only did 13, and she says she can’t let go of them as they helped her to heal.

But even with all this creative output, Tesolin still didn’t see being an artist as a career calling. Her dream ever since she was a little girl was to be a lawyer, she says, and she became one, eventually specializing in intellectual property for the entertainment industry.

It was a high-powered, stressful job. She burnt out and became ill. Her doctors’ advice at the time: do something enjoyable, creative and relaxing.

So Tesolin went back to jewellery.

She figured she’d design for a while and eventually return to the world of law. But after selling her entire stock at a 2003 trade show, she started designing full-time.

Business grew slowly but steadily. She showed at Fashion Week in the mid-2000s. Soon the stylists sought her out; then the fashion magazines came calling.

While the magazine exposure is great, Tesolin says it doesn’t define her. She still designs and makes many of her pieces at the cottage — in fact she says she gets her best ideas there — and counts family and close friendships as vital to her success.

She says she doesn’t think of what she’s doing as work.

“This is my career. This is where I have to be.”

Looking down at her hand, Tesolin wiggles her ring finger, upon which sits her graduation ring from law school. She says she wears it to remind herself she’s capable of doing anything — hence her business expansion plans, which, though scary, are on the near horizon.

No one can hold you back, she says, except yourself.

Not surprisingly, turquoise is still the stone she’s most attracted to.

“It’s the stone of strength.”