Q&A: Serena Van Rensselaer on How Her New Jewelry Goes With the Flow

By Karen Dybis | June 12, 2026

Serena Van Rensselaer’s latest collaboration is a film (and animal) lover’s delight: handcrafted fine jewelry pieces inspired by the critically acclaimed 2024 animated film Flow.

Directed and cowritten by Latvian filmmaker-composer Gints Zilbalodis, Flow follows a cat in a dystopian world of rising sea levels. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and was nominated for best foreign film.

“Much of my work explores storytelling through jewelry, so Flow felt like a natural extension of my creative vision. I was excited by the opportunity to translate the film’s emotion, symbolism, and themes of connection into wearable art,” Van Rensselaer says.

Her initial Flow collection, available now, comprises rings and pendant necklaces with floral and animal motifs. The animals are all central to the film—cat, lemur, dog, capybara, secretary bird. Van Rensselaer says she plans to add earrings to the collection in time for the NY Now show in early August.

*The cat and capybara are two of the characters in* Flow *that Serena Van Rensselaer has turned into jewelry.*

A portion of the proceeds from Flow x Serena Van Rensselaer sales will go to the Woodstock Farm Sanctuary, an animal rescue organization in New York’s Hudson Valley, the New York Citybased designer says.

JCK spoke with Van Rensselaer about the Flow movie, master artisan Aurelio Rivera’s work on the collection, and why this jewelry means so much to her.

How did this collaboration happen?

I feel incredibly honored that the Flow team found me through my Le Petit Prince collaboration. They were looking for a jewelry designer to create a collection inspired by the film Flow. They felt that the timeless symbolic themes in Le Petit Prince [The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry] shared similarities with the symbolism found throughout Flow, particularly themes of heart connection, friendship, resilience, and personal growth.

What was your experience with the film, and what did you want to bring to a jewelry collection inspired by it?

I have watched Flow many times, and each time I fall more in love with it. The first time I watched the film, I watched it with my 18-year-old son, and we were both deeply moved. My son felt that each animal represented different cultures and people navigating challenges together, ultimately supporting one another and standing up for community, compassion, and love, even when those around them might not understand.

I was struck by the beauty of the film and the rich symbolism woven throughout. The themes of connection, resilience, empathy, friendship, and the balance between independence and relying on others resonated deeply with me. As the title suggests, the film is also about learning to go with the flow rather than forcing yourself upon the world. It explores our relationship with nature and with one another in a profound and beautiful way.

My goal was to translate these themes into jewelry. While the first part of the creative journey focused on designing and creating the main animals from the film, I later worked closely with the Flow licensing team to develop pieces that captured the spirit and feeling of the movie through elements of nature, water, movement, and flow. It has truly been a magical journey.

Flow Serena Cat — *Besides this cat with its head bent inquisitively, the* Flow character appears with its tail hanging down in another pendant and wrapped around the finger as a ring.

How was it designing animals? Each one is so expressive!

Each model was lovingly hand-carved in wax by the talented master artisan Aurelio Rivera. Nothing was designed on a computer. We wanted to truly capture the spirit and personality of each animal, and we felt that hand-carving was the only way to achieve that level of expression and emotion. One of the greatest creative challenges was translating animated characters into metal while preserving their warmth, movement, and personality. We wanted each piece to feel alive and recognizable while remaining elegant jewelry.

The result is extraordinary because hand-carving captures nuances that are difficult to replicate digitally. The process was lengthy, and we were incredibly meticulous about every detail, from size and proportion to expression and overall feeling. We went through many refinements to ensure each character felt authentic to the film and conveyed the emotion that makes Flow so special.

What have you learned from this project as a jewelry designer?

I am always learning, and I am incredibly grateful for the talented and supportive team around me. Every aspect of the project required dedication and collaboration. The custom packaging was beautifully designed by Matthew Kraus of Shahid/Kraus & Company, and we revised several elements multiple times before achieving exactly the result we envisioned.

The jewelry itself also went through numerous iterations. Aurelio and I explored many different versions before arriving at the final designs. This project reinforced the importance of resilience, patience, and staying true to my creative vision—even when it meant revisiting and refining elements again and again until they felt exactly right.

How does the Flow collection fit into your body of work overall?

I strive to create jewelry that tells a story and evokes emotion. My goal is to share beauty, love, and meaning through wearable art. I am fascinated and inspired by the challenge of translating a story, a film, or an emotional experience into jewelry, creating pieces that become both sculpture and storytelling.

Above all, I hope people feel a sense of connection, wonder, and optimism when they wear these pieces. I hope the collection allows them to carry a small reminder of the film’s messages of friendship, empathy, resilience, and the beauty of going with the flow.

Top: The lemur and cat necklaces in sterling silver, $300 each; Serena Van Rensselaer x Flow (photos courtesy of Serena Van Rensselaer)