Artist Bio

Tanya Boya is a painter and jeweller from East Vancouver, British Columbia. Born in Myanmar, she spent her early childhood years immersed in Burmese culture. Her path led her later through the ancient grounds of Orpheus of Thrace (nowadays Bulgaria), Germany and finally to the Pacific Northwest, where she lives for the past 20 years. Tanya Boya has painted and designed all her life, and in the past few years has been following the instruction of the French ‘wet in wet’ watercolorists. She has been studying the art of composition, chasing and repoussé with Bulgarian and Florentine masters. Her watercolors and silk paintings and scarfs are in private collections in Europe and Canada. She studied jewelry under the mentorship of Andrea Roberts in Vancouver and lately with Maestro Fabrizio Aquafresca in Florence, Italy.

The Process of Jewelry Making 

Medieval alchemists were known to meditate in a way that enabled them to achieve transformation of material and spirit. This meditation is very similar to what artists today call the process of active imagination and creation.

Working with the medium of silver and copper led me to a path similar to the one alchemists walked centuries ago. I began a journey of inner transformation that guides me to create objects in precious metal. Based on the way my clients and friends perceive these objects, I believe they carry archetypal imagery understandable and shared by many. Creating jewelry in collaboration with my clients and their stories is my greatest joy. This jewelry then becomes the expression of their spirit and identity.

Studio