Anisya finds, and sells, treasures. She has private clients who say they couldn't do without her. Royalty, hotel design teams, fashion houses and individuals with summer homes on Ibiza enlist her help in seeking out the perfect one of a kind item.
Anisya also creates art, combining moon stones and emeralds, inlaid in exotic wood, leather or precious metals. "A palm frond I picked up along the beach once inspired me to create a new collection of leather and metal accessories” she told me.
Her 2010 summer collection of jewelry consists of only 30 pieces, each unique, never to be made again. The new collection is called “Aniska,” which is the name her father called her as a child. She told me, "as a little girl, my father, an architect specializing in restoring monasteries in Macedonia, and I would drive for hours in nature, where he would find inspiration for his projects. He would stop the car and climb a hill, maybe thirty minutes, just to get a flower with a color I liked. We took it by the roots to grow at home, to enjoy its beauty." Her favorite bedtime stories were from Schoener-Wohnen, a German Architectural Magazine.
“My father gave me so much confidence that I wasn't afraid to do what men did! I preferred horse riding and fencing to ballet lessons. I still like some things which are considered traditionally masculine but with a dose of glamour which I add!"
She speaks passionately about how inspiring a work of beauty can be, "and should be," she quickly points out. "Not just Industrial Revolution baubles," she remarks.
"Sometimes, I can see a piece of jewelry and I can't even breathe I want to wear it so badly," Anisya continues. “It doesn't matter if it is glass or a 5 million dollar pink diamond, I just want to wear it, to feel the piece, and its power."
Continuing her discourse, Anisya points out the relevance of crowned jewels to Kings and Queens. “They wore rubies and diamonds at the top of their crowns, connecting their crown chakra to Divinity."
Her personal inspiration from crowns, jewels and luxury goes back to her childhood in socialist Yugoslavia.
"My mother thought it was so funny that I was obsessed with these things. I lived in anticipation of the fulfillment of my dreams. And when these things came, I had the feeling not of possession, but of play, in a very Bohemian way."
“Of course,” she continued,“ this is in contrast to the picture the world has of socialist Yugoslavia, I experienced the most amazingly rich childhood. I was immured in a society based on intellect, ideas and creations rather than on what possessions one had. Almost like Gautama Buddha’s upbringing, I saw no sadness, no lack in the world in which I was raised.”
Anisya relates a serendipitous story of how she made a career out of her passion. She had gone on holiday to Sri Lanka, and bought back a container of furniture. She rang up the Director of Furniture for Christie's of London. And he bought all 18 pieces. Thus, her relationship with Christie's and her vocation as designer/buyer came to be.
"My friends were in shock, but I thought it was just, you know, normal. They refer to me as having a jet set gypsy lifestyle."
Anisya's glamour is not derived from the stones she is wearing around her neck. Rather, it is her confidence, and strong sense of what makes an artist's creations memorable. "A true artist puts an imprint in the art, and brings Divinity to humankind. The finished product should inspire, as it is about the arousal of emotion, true art."
She stares over my shoulder as if she sees an artist's creation suspended in the ethereal lighting which is Ibiza. "The artist invokes angels, something holy, and brings it like a little gift, an offering. I believe in having the right balance... lots of spirituality and lots of money! " she says laughingly, but deadly serious, just as she spoke of anticipating the fulfillment of creating things when she was a child. Not everyone can travel the globe, find treasure and create new treasures! I feel that I am giving back, bringing Divinity closer to mankind.”
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