Dutch-Vietnamese jeweller Nhật-Vũ Đặng, self-taught Japanese painter Ryo Koike, and German dentist Marlene Schulz navigate worlds of silver, pigment, and enamel. Grounded by the aesthetic comfort of Scholl shoes, their hands are guided by instinct, precision, and the quiet ritual of craft.
Kevyn Aucoin’s Making Faces almost made Marlene Schulz a make-up artist. Discovering the beauty bible at her grandmother’s house one Christmas, Schulz became infatuated with the craft of cosmetics—instead, she ended up behind a dental drill. The MUA-to-dentistry pipeline may not be a storied one, but for Schulz, the throughline was precision. “I often feel like both an artist and an engineer,” she explains.
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From her practice in Potsdam, she now spends her days solving what she calls “little puzzles” in enamel. Dentistry, for Marlene, is neither sterile nor mystical; it’s a daily practice of design, problem-solving, and detail. “To most outsiders, it’s just 32 teeth. For me, it’s like a giant map I’m slowly filling in.”
“Failing to plan is planning to fail. My life runs on to-do lists. Total Virgo energy.”
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Excerpt from INDIE 72: Calendar Girls.
Read our interview with Nhật-Vũ Đặng and Ryo Koike.
Paid partnership with Scholl.
