OUR STORY
Jóhanna Methúsalemsdóttir's approach to jewelry is rooted in her journey leaving her native Reykjavík in the late 80s as a teenager in the midst of a counter-cultural shift in music and art there and emigrating to New York City.
Parts of downtown were desolate at night, but it was an era of vibrant street culture, DIY galleries, underground clubs and avant-fashion which continue to inform her. She interned for what would become a notable jewelry line emerging from 90s downtown New York, took jewelry courses at FIT, became a young mother and then a fashion stylist which led her back to jewelry and motherhood again simultaneously 13 years apart emphasizing cycles and their significance.
Jóhanna returned to jewelry-making in the parlor room of her Brooklyn apartment which she transformed into a menagerie of natural objects and ephemera from her Icelandic heritage. She considered fractals, cycles, and patterns and developed what would become Kria's signature—extracting parts from natural systems and re-contextualizing them.
Her partner, Paul Weil, joined the studio in 2018 and brought his background in art and design to her practice learning jewelry finishing before they moved their family to the Catskill Mountains to continue the transformation of Kria into an autonomous artistic partnership. The Kria World retail store and studio opened in 2019 offering transparency to the handmade process and surrounding the jewelry with inspiring collections of ceramics, glassware, objet d’art, music, literature, visual art, apparel, self-care, and wellness.
Kria jewelry has been nominated for the Icelandic Cultural Award, selected for the Nordic Fashion Biennale, exhibited internationally, featured in several award-winning television shows, and published in Elle, Visionaire, InStyle, New York Times Magazine, Purple, Another, and Variety magazines among others.
