backstory
The story behind TopFrog by designer Amy Klessen...
I am
an artist. You might want to call me a jewelry designer, and I guess you
would probably be right, but what I love about designing jewelry is the
same thing that I love about painting. You can manipulate color and shape
and texture to create a certain affect. A good accessory is like the final
streak of crimson or fleck of yellow you add to a painting that makes
you want to keep looking at the painting, not just that final spot. That's
what I want my necklaces to be like, that final stroke which make a woman
look complete without overpowering the rest of her presence. Finding a
well-balanced combination of sparkle and modesty without contradiction
is my mission. It is the investigation I undertook before I could even
drive.Four years ago I was sixteen and about to embark on a midlife crisis. No, it wasn't mine; it was my dad's. The company he had worked for all his adult life offered him a management position in Southeast Asia with the only alternative being early retirement. He went with option number two.
But what
would my dad do now? He was a businessman who suddenly found himself without
a business. His collection of glass vases had grown quite impressive.
He tried cyber auctioning several pieces only to discover his product
too high end to sell through digital pictures. And so while I was enjoying
the liberty of finally being able to drive myself around in the family
jeep, my father booked a flight to Prague and headed out to the Czech
countryside in a rented Renault on his mission for affordable glass.He both succeeded and failed on his quest. In all the stores and all the factories, no one really seemed to sell glass vases of the type he desired. In fact, no one really seemed to sell very many vases at all, the Czech glass industry now translated into bead factory. He went for days through factories looking for the perfect vessel, only to have strands of beads (which were lovely but beside the point) thrust in his face. He was offered a duffel bag of free samples, which my dad half -heartedly accepted (if nothing else, he could appease his wife and daughters with gifts) and headed home.
I don't remember being particularly impressed with the necklaces he returned with. Then again, I was an artistic and fashion savvy sixteen year old, and it was against policy to be impressed by anything my parents did. Furthermore having a suit and tie man suddenly start bringing home bracelets by the boxful with the announcement that he was going into the fashion business can make any adolescent skeptic.
And so the sixteen year old who wanted to do nothing but be a driver and a painter put her brushes down and began to look into the world of jewelry. Where else but women's apparel do you have the opportunity to start with such a lively canvas as the human body, you have all that fantastic energy already working for you whereas paper or canvas are just blank expanse of space. And so, I have become an artist, but not just an artist who dabbles in oil or acrylic, but also one who constructs with glitter and glitz.
- Amy Klessen, Designer, TopFrog