After a series of struggles, Johnel Jamison found his purpose in silver and gold portrait pieces that celebrate figures from Missy Elliott to Octavia St. Laurent.
, Dorian Corey, Freddie Pendavis...). They wore the buttons on streamlined zoot suits with exaggerated shoulders that were inspired by the film“People saw the buttons at the Met and now they want the lapel pins or cuff links,” he said, “I’ve gotten a lot more orders—custom orders, because it really opened up the creativity of the consumer. Now they are the designer.”
Jamison was born in London and raised in Brooklyn. His childhood was typified by a tremendous amount of love at home provided by two artistic parents. His mom Glenice, who hails from the UK and knows how to dress like a diva on a budget, fostered his love of aesthetics and design and taught him how to make his own jewelry.
Four years later, when Jamison was 20 and starting to make a name for himself as a rapper, he was again attacked by the NYPD officers who caught him urinating in public. He told me they pummeled him senselessly. But then, in short succession, he was hit with two wake-up calls. The first was the death of his close friend Ditto Castillo, who went by the name Ease Daman. Castillo was a fellow artist, who made rap music and worked for streetwear brands like Mishka. He died in 2013 due to complications with drugs. For Jamison, Castillo’s passing helped put the consequences of substance abuse into perspective.
Looking for a new way to express himself and make a living, Jamison turned to jewelry because people always loved the way he accessorized when he was rapping on stage. In terms of design, Jamison feels his biggest breakthrough was his four-finger rings that feature iconic faces. To make them, Jamison starts with Adobe Illustrator. “I take pictures of their faces and put them together to see how they would line up on a hand,” he said. After that, it’s time to work by hand, carving the faces out of wax, which is used to make prototypes. This part of the process can take weeks.
But the conjoined piece that speaks to him and his experiences most explicitly is his Let Freedom Ring, which features the faces of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, and Frederick Douglas. “This is my space to actually speak,” he said to me of the ring, “about the injustices I have been through firsthand with racism and police brutality. This ring starts that conversation.”
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