Many artists find their muse among the beauties of the natural world: iridescent gems, breathtaking sunsets, the eyes of a child, or a perfectly shaded flower. Rose Marie Veltri realized her inspiration and appreciation for beauty from a more unlikely source. While teaching sculpture to visually impaired adults through the Allens Lane Project in the Mount Airy section of Philadelphia in 2000, Veltri realized that beauty, and the appreciation of art as it can influence a person, a soul, and a way of life, came from ones own understanding of the mixture of aesthetics and form and how it reflects the individuality and spirit of that person. Veltri has used this belief of beauty to guide her jewelry design.
A trained sculptor with a bachelor's degree in fine art from Moore College of Art and Design, Veltri has taken her classical training and personalized it to expose the individuality that shows in the intimacy of her jewelry. While at Moore, the only all woman's art college in the U.S., Veltri examined the merits of different mediums of art and learned to appreciate the balance of craft and aesthetics. It is this sometimes rivaling duality that makes her pieces so unique. This is manifested in the clean lines of her jewelry, the use of distinctive stones, and the nontraditional mixture of conventional shapes, particularly in her earrings. Her pieces reflect a keen understanding of the technical craftsmanship of jewelry design and a desire to depart from the traditional mold of design, instead favoring a vantage of artistic merit and individuality.
Veltri herself, trained in indigenous methods of metalsmithing by Master Konrad Latimer in South Tyrol, Italy, looks to her artistic appreciation and the students of her class at Allens Lane for inspiration. "Jewelry, in the most immediate sense, is meant to state the unsaid, to reflect not just light, but the very being of the person who wears it. It is meant to say, 'this is me,' before the person even says hello. And so it need not be predictable, but rather uniquely individual and appear as though it were made for only that one person and no other. Sometimes this statement is subtle, and sometimes it can be bold."
Since the winter of 2003, Veltri has worked for Novell gaining experience from many master craftsmen at the Novell facility. She has now launched her own line of necklaces, earrings, and bracelets in January of 2006. Named Rose Veltri Jewelry, the everyday fine jewelry line will reflect the departure from the norm that has definitively guided Veltri's career and inspiration.