Bodies are made of water. They flow like rivers and melt like ice, led into self-expression by the infinity of emotions perpetually coursing through them. Our fluidity is physical and energetic; it powers both our vessels and our creative force.

Much like the ever-shifting moods of water, and the paradox it embodies, Milko Boyarov’s jewelry is hard and soft, warm and glacial, petrified and generative.

Milko and I met in a sweaty Zürich nightclub over six years ago, and hadn’t spoken since – a quick dive into the purpose, iterations, and life-affirming DNA of liquids, bodies and flow seemed like a fitting conceptual terrain to reunite on.

A: We perceive ourselves more than we experience ourselves, in our flesh. How does that perception vs experience binary work for you?

M: There is a dissociation. Maybe in my own body I’m more of a dolphin, warm and joyful, but what I like to portray to the world is often this cold, glacial person. I don’t know why I do it – maybe it’s a sort of protection, a shield.

My body isn’t my favorite aspect of who I am.

‍A: And yet, it’s what allows you to channel your creativity – it’s the stream it flows through.

M: Yes, that’s the paradox – my body is also my biggest inspiration.

In order to create my jewelry, I get inspired by the fluids of my own body – the sweat, the tears, and then the meaning and energy behind them.

Are they happy tears, or sad tears? Is it sweat from stress or from movement?

A: That’s fascinating, tell me more.

‍At this point Milko whips out a bag of adornments and shows me their different shapes and textures; how they espouse very specific and generally unacknowledged parts of the body, while also in a way shielding them from the outside world.

M: My designs are first and foremost emulated on my own body, and I like to adorn parts of the body that aren’t usually adorned, or meant to be adorned.

For example, this is one of my favorite rings, and what it does is sublimate the space in between your fingers, this kind of liminal space. But at the same time, it’s also like armor – a protective guise.

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A: How do the fluids fit in?

M: I find it very inspiring to see the life these fluids take on their own, the ways in which they spill out of the (solid-looking) body.

I am interested in the shape different fluids take, especially when informed by the emotion that charges them.

I love to think about how fluids, which are ever-moving, could be captured in time, and in matter. Sadness, stress, anger, arousal…Sperm, for example, has a different viscosity which speaks for the thicker, more dense energy it carries. But I just as much like to make adornments out of my tears, such as this necklace.

A: From the work you showed me, the metal rings and the tear-dripping necklace, I see a contrast between the armor represented by the metal, and the extreme fragility of the liquids that inspire some other adornments, like tears, for instance.

M: Yes, there is a similar aesthetic, but the rings perhaps echo more of a masculine energy.

A: Is masculine energy more protective, and fem energy more open and vulnerable?

M: In my world, it depends on the day – it’s always a balance. Feminine energy can definitely be quite powerful, and also quite protective.

A: How do you feel the creative process reflects this idea of our bodies being in constant flow?

M: I don’t really meditate, but my work is quite a meditative process, because I use my hands a lot, I’m very close to the materials and very injected into the present moment.