I met Katia Rabey at College while studying jewelry design. She was one year my senior, and was about to graduate. I remember being in my second year back then, holding Katia’s Graduation project in my hands and being astounded by the multicolored, intricate and highly detailed, and conceptual piece. Ever since I knew that Katia’s creations were ‘right up my alley’, so allow me to introduce you!
Rabey, An Artist, Jewelry Designer, Mother, Advocate, and many more titles I can label, is of Russian heritage and had immigrated to Israel before and after the war broke out. During her time post studies in Russia, Rabey had taken part in organizing Jewelry exhibitions and groups such as the ‘9 March Project’. I, myself was also invited to take part in these exhibitions which occurred in Moscow, and Saint Peterburg and went on to other Slavic and European states.
The Exhibitions that Rabey took part in aimed to encourage discussions on ‘Taboo’ or controversies and other sensitive topics back then (2019-2020) and stood out as a beacon of light in the darkness that is Russia and its oppressive regime. The exhibitions talked about Feminism, Gender, Borders, Sexuality, War, Peace- You name it. Many various and intriguing topics were brought on in jewelry form and were curated extraordinarily by Rabey and other Colleagues; Mrs Starikova and Mrs. Pavlovskaya. Rabey and her colleagues looking back now had paved the way for something that was not only unspoken of but also unheard or even denied in Russia in Jewelry form. I can assure you that it was a very tough mission for Mrs. Rabey to get the necessary permissions to conduct such exhibitions and also got her fair share of hate back.
However, Katia Rabey, A Senior at ‘Shenkar College of Engineering and Design, did not let the Covid epidemic, nor the War with Ukraine stop her from letting everyone know her thoughts and stances, or even questions and debates on topics. Doing all of this using jewelry as a medium is not an easy task, but Rabey’s big to small, colorful works can speak volumes. Rabeys works can be serious, sad, happy, imaginative and fantastic, and humorous- she displays a wide range of emotions in her works as much as color.
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#1 Little Alien Earrings
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#2 A Colorful Array Of Floral Moving Flowers Rings
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#3 Turquoise Doggy Pendant
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#4 The Blue Puppy Earrings
There was a character from an old soviet cartoon called “The Blue Puppy”, rather a tragic figure. In my childhood everyone used to giggle when hearing Puppy’s tragic song “I was hurt by evil fate, oh why am I blue!” because “blue” as an adjective was widely used in russian slang to mean “homosexual”. Well, this new puppy on my earrings is not hurt by evil fate, he went through therapy and he feels perfectly fine with who he is, living his best life blinking lazily at us with his pink swarovski eyes.
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#5 A Portrait Of My Pug As A Ring? Don’t Mind If I Do
Katia will go “all in” when creating a custom order for a client. Blackened silver portrait of your pug you can wear on your finger? Easy. Turn your child’s drawing into a brooch. No problem. Depict your kids as funny monsters and make them into a unique piece of jewelry. Sure, why not!
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#6 ‘oh Boy’ Earrings
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#7 Blue, Pink, Yellow, Blue Rotating Flower Ring
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#8 Orange Cat/Tiger Pendant
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#9 Big Green Pink Alien Pendant
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#10 Meet The Person Behind The Jewels, As Colorful, Vibrant, Sophisticated Just As Her Works
Jewelry Designer and Artist- Katia Rabey, ‘ Rabeyka’ Wearing her big pink arc necklace stating to everyone that her originality is definitely not a phase.
Image source: KatiaRabey
#11 Katia’s Self Portrait- Necklace
She once created her own wearable self-portrait! The best part is both Katia and her portrait pendant can have the same earrings to match. Jeeze even her giant pendant has earrings? how cool is that?
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#12 Quarantine Day 35- Bird Ring
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#13 Gender Bender Brooch
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#14 Mind Blowing Big Orange Oval Pendant
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#15 Cute Elephant 3-5 Legged Aliens
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#16 Pink Blue And Yellow Flower Rings
Katia loves when pieces are interactive – you can play with them, change them, rotate parts, etc. There are mono-earrings with funny characters whose heads you can swap creating weird new hybrids, there are colorful signet rings with rotating flowers, there is a gender-bender brooch with rotating parts that help you create new genders; and there is, of course, utterly craze and spectacular “Silly Village” series where each piece depicts life stories of silly people.
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#17 Katia Wearing Big And Bold ‘Wanted’ Earrings
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#18 Talking About Constructs- Rabeyka
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#19 “I Promise It Is Not A Phase” Pendant
Katia’s Forte are big colorful pieces, letters, words and funny characters. Handmade from metal and then powder-coated with industrial paint, used in auto production.
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#20 Tongue Out Colorful Earrings
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#21 ‘dojili’ Or ‘Lived Or Survived Till The Current Moment’
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#22 Red White And Blue Pendant With Hands
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#23 Quarantine Day 3- Steampunk Ring
During the COVID-19 lockdown, Rabey challenged herself to create one ring a day using only the things she could find at home. She made a total of 80 rings without missing a day!
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#24 Quarantine Day 64 – ‘Disgusting Sweets’ Ring
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#25 2019 Mcdonalds Gold Bar Pendant
Katia does conceptual work. For instance, this piece talks about eating disorders and guilty pleasures: the weight of gold in this pendant is equivalent in price to the amount the artist spent in Mcdonald’s while stress-eating.
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#26 Pacifier Earrings For Big Babies
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#27 Colorful 5 Legged Piggy Brooch
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#28 ‘denial’ Earrings In Green
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#29 On Body- Pendant
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#30 Close Up
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#31 Tongue Out Earrings (Tongue Can Move)
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#32 ‘slut’ Necklace – An Informative Picture For The Obeying The Standards And Norms Of Society
In this piece, Katia recreated a famous work by Rosea Lake “Judgements” but moved it up to the cleavage area. What does a cleavage size (and jewelry style) say about a woman? Wrong answers only!
Image source: KatiaRabey
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