Junior Maya Krantz’s younger sister’s birthday party in 6th grade featured bracelet beading. Walking into the celebration, she did not suspect that the craft project would develop into what has become her passion.

Maya Krantz takes jewelry making at the high school, metalworking independently, and has taken classes at the Brookline Arts Center. She creates projects ranging from earrings to sculptures of hands, and has sold some of her jewelry at local book store Brookline Booksmith. Krantz said she uses jewelry making and metalworking as an outlet for her creativity and love of experimenting with materials.

Krantz’s one of her greatest challenges is finding the time for her art because she pursues other hobbies like violin and lighting for plays.

According to junior Nitasha Yajnik, a friend of Krantz’s, she has always been able to overcome this struggle for time.

“I know she spends a lot of time working on things,” Yajnik said. “I don’t know the exact number, but she’s always working on something, and sometimes she’ll bring it to school to work on, or at home when she has free time.”

According to her younger sister, freshman Hannah Krantz, Maya Krantz concentrated on jewelery making the most during 7th grade while it was being sold at the Brookline Booksmith.

“She used to come home from school, and spend all afternoon making stuff,” Hannah Krantz said.  

Maya Krantz said that although it was exciting to make art for the Brookline Booksmith, it  could also be restricting.

“With a customer, they want a specific design, and you have to do it exactly that way,” she said. “Sometimes when I’m making things, I like to start designing something, and then in the middle of it, if I don’t like it, I can change it up.”

For her, changing the design after starting a project is a part of the process, as well as part of the fun.

“I like being creative, and designing things, and putting things together, and figuring out how things work,” Krantz said.

Because jewelry making and metalworking involve different materials and textures, a viewer may see it from several angles. Krantz said that as a result, jewelry making and metalworking are very unique from two dimensional art like painting or drawing.

One of her favorite pieces that she’s made, a cuff bracelet, incorporates this concept of texture.

“There’s a lightning bolt cut out of it, and a moon, and it has a hammer pattern on it. When you shine it up to a light, a really bright light, it’s supposed to shine like stars,” Krantz said.

Hannah Krantz said she thinks her sister is imaginative and can bring ideas to life as a product.

“I’ve always been really impressed by it because she can just take a bunch of beads and wire, and make them into something that people will buy and wear,” Hannah Krantz said.

According to Yajnik, part of what makes her friend so great at what she does is her amount of passion. Yajnik said the excitement in Krantz’s voice while sharing her latest project could put a smile on anyone’s face.

“Maya’s always really happy and energetic and she brings that out in her art,” Yajnik said. “Seeing her art always makes me happy because it makes her happy. Her art resembles her happiness.”