An Interview with
John Landrum Bryant
AHP: when did you first start Bryant Enterprises?
JLB: The Company was started in 1992; But It was not until 1995 that I began to create jewelry.
AHP: What kind of relationship do you have with your clients? Do you personally connect with them? Can you take their ideas and taste into account when designing?
JLB: With Most, It is a question of something they like that I have already produced. With a few, it is more intense, relating their visions and my own. If a client has an idea for a piece, I will work with him or her to realize it, but I do not fabricate the designs of others.
AHP: If you had to say what your mission statement is, what would it be?
JLB: The single-minded pursuit of every creative opportunity that interests me, without reference to popular taste or trends.
AHP: How do you see the relationship between “What you do” and home design?
JLB: While I have done a great deal of “Interior Design” such as choosing fabric, carpets, wall treatments for my wife and myself (We are the most demanding of all clients). I do not consider myself an interior designer. Instead I prefer to concentrate more on the interplay of the volume, space, light, color and mood of the project. Which, in turn, lead organically to the furniture and objects I create to reflect and refract these elements.
The pieces I create, while useful and functional, are first, works of art. They are not hip, quirky or shocking. They would never been seen in cutting edge galleries. Instead, they are friendly and evocate of the world of nature- A world parallel to our own, needing nothing from us –Except to stop trashing it.
While I consider my creations works of art, I do not consider myself an artist. I am an experimenter. I take from all that I have experienced and move it about, think about it in new ways and create some thing- Fine jewelry, object d’art, door hardware and garden furniture! Then I move on to where my mind takes me next, as I consider everything in my creative domain.
AHP: What do you feel your pieces bring to someone’s home? (I.e. Uniqueness, Beauty, Lighthearted spirit, Nature etc)
JLB: All of my creations are bringers of joy to those with the souls to receive it .They are meant to evoke and remind the owner of something deep within- usually subconsciously. I do not make a big thing about this, but I cannot help incorporating this ephemeral element into my work and I know that it is recognized by others. Even those that do not like the piece.
AHP: Who makes up the company- you and who else? Who works for you (If anyone)? What is the company dynamic like?
JLB: The Company is my own vehicle; it will not meet any business tests and its dynamic is irrelevant to what I do. I have one or two employees, but I work with eight or ten other people who have companies of their own who realize my creations. It is through their hands that my pieces come into being. In order to do this, I am constantly supervising and reviewing their progress on a continuing basis. I carry in my head a completed image of the completed piece. This permits me to move forward even when there are setbacks, or the ideas seem ill-understood