about the creator:

Nicola Melody, born and raised in New Orleans, is a multimedia artist with a focus on beading, assemblage, and textiles. Inspiration for her work includes: creating tangible dreamscapes, preserving memory, honoring decay, carnival, ironwork & architecture, magical realism, art nouveau, botany, the deep sea, shadow archetypes, and encapsulating childhood wonder.

“Mardi Gras was my first true love and creative influence. By the age of one I was fully immersed in carnival and the embrace of the absurd~ surrounded by handmade costumes, jester masks, marching bands, piles of beads, feathers, sequins…and most importantly, the act of taking up space (and being loud about it).

I spent my childhood and late teen years twirling in and out of haunted alleys in the French Quarter, sensing magic around every corner and wanting to capture that feeling forever. The architecture of the French Quarter and the biodiversity of the swamp became my two biggest muses once I started creating. I’m forever enamored by the texture of Spanish moss, the scream of cicadas at dusk, and the resilience of Louisiana marshes.”

about the work:

Materials include various fibers, gemstones, ethically sourced freshwater pearls & shells, sterling silver, steel, and up-cycled jewelry components:

a form of protection against a world that can feel increasingly suffocating…

(armor for your arsenal)

Swamp Arsenal was a project born in March 2021 on the floor of a 325 sq. ft apartment and has been shapeshifting ever since.

"a duel between reality and illusion…

to conquer and invade a labyrinth."

—anaïs nin