While some were using their mixing bowls to make sourdough bread in 2020, artist Shira Tagle was armed with a rolling pin stretching out slabs of polymer clay to create earrings as they explored their creativity.
“I was not too sure about what made me feel happy and made me feel fulfilled, so I was playing around with being more hands-on and being more creative,” Tagle said of their interest in clay work, noting they felt “stuck in limbo” after graduating with a degree in psychology from Cal State Long Beach.
The interest in jewelry traces back to Tagle’s father, a jewelry maker who has been in the trade for over 35 years. Tagle often assisted at his Lancaster shop and observed how the jewelry was made.
“I never really actually considered making [jewelry] myself up until I was being more hands-on and I just kind of really liked the idea of being able to have wearable art,” Tagle said, noting they learned how to make clay earrings from “trial and error.”
Earrings in earthy colors and oval shapes—the genesis of Tagle’s online art shop Verse Collective—were the first stop in their creative quest but certainly not the last.
As Tagle kneaded the polymer clay with their hands and played with natural textures, Verse started to mold into a shop specializing in handmade wearable art and curiosities in late 2020.
With an interest in oddities stemming from childhood, Tagle integrated oddity boxes or “realms” into their offerings, playing with natural 3D elements and texture to create these projects—often using dry animal bones, insects and florals.
One of Tagle’s latest creations is a clear box containing an orange butterfly with speckles of black resting amid green moss and white dried flowers. Around it rest rabbit bones and a horse’s tooth.
“[They’re] little pieces that capture moments of natural beauty in them,” Tagle said, noting their love for oddities stem from an appreciation for nature and bugs enmeshed with a love of horror films.
In 2021, Tagle introduced their floral vintage tea sets—delicately decorated with green moss lining the cup and a raccoon’s jaw resting alongside a feather and dried florals. A small white plate with multi-color flowers holds the cup in place.
“I like the idea of something very delicate and sweet to contrast with something maybe a little morbid with the bones,” Tagle said of the juxtaposition.
Tagle sources the animal bones for the oddity pieces from estate sales, the Long Beach Antique Market and Indigenous tribes from the Pacific Northwest and the Midwest—a process they said is lengthy as it requires time to scout and curate.
Since Tagle’s time making realms, patrons have also requested more sentimental pieces like a keepsake jewelry box a mother wanted to keep her baby’s teeth. Another time, she created a custom pair of glass bottle earrings containing yarrow flowers to be gifted to an expecting mother whose baby was to be named after the flower.
“I love the idea of making something so sweet like that for a mother,” Tagle said, noting floral pieces for earrings are their most fulfilling to create.
Since 2021, patrons have been able to find Tagle’s oddities and jewelry lining the shelves of The Hangout, where later this year Tagle hopes to offer workshops.
The workshops will focus on how to assemble curiosity bottles—a customizable customer favorite available in earrings and necklace option—and show how to harvest their own materials and curate color schemes and flowers.
While some patrons may prefer the jar earrings to have an assortment of bones from the digestive remains of an owl, others have the choice to include natural elements in their jewelry pieces like rose petals, lavender or blue cornflower.
For now, Tagle is focused on settling into a studio they’ll share with another artist, a step closer to fulfilling the goal of creating a collective of artists.
“I had no idea a year ago that I’d be here,” Tagle said. “I’ve always been very personal about the things that I create so it’s a new experience for me to share them with people publicly, but it’s always been very exciting, I’m looking forward to it.”
To stay up to date with Verse Collective, follow them on Instagram at @verse__collective.
