First trials with glass during a training session at La Petite Manufacture in Paris. Inspired by YSL’s Mondrian dress and the color combos observed in Pigalle cafes that have not changed decor since the ’50s. “Once you start working with glass, you don’t want to stop,” said Marie, the owner of the boutique/atelier. It’s true. You can make fabulous pieces with shards and even dust from broken pieces. Marie is cooking these pieces in her kiln as I write this. I’ll post the results tomorrow.
Archive for Designers
I will admit I am a snob. There is very little in the world of contemporary jewelry that I like. That makes it easy for me to zero in on what does appeal to me and what I want to communicate with the pieces I make.
One place I can always see pieces that inspire and thrill me is Metal and Thread. This boutique in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn is run by Denise Carbonell, a woman I met in NYC 2 decades ago when she was an emerging fashion designer. Her boutique is an atelier of local artisans’ work. It all seems to fit together, though you can hear the disparate voices in the various lines.
The bird pendant seems to quietly chirp, while this stainless steel skirt (!) proclaims, “HELLO!” You can see more work by Metal and Thread designers here.
I was introduced to Georg Jensen’s divinely simple designs by Matt Gracie, a friend who gave me the vintage pair of earrings pictured here. I was still a teen, and it was one of the first pieces of fine jewelry I possessed. My family had had a few pieces of Jensen’s flatware and silver tabletop items. The Danish designer began his work in the early 1900s and became a pioneer in the Scandinavian modern movement that blossomed in the mid-century.
Though Jensen died in 1935, his company and name still hold plenty of prestige. This “Cave” ring was designed by Jacqueline Rabun, a designer brought on for one of the company’s ongoing modern collaborations, a few years ago. When Matt himself passed away, in 2008, I bought this ring to remember him, the huge influence he has had on my life, and (apologies for the lugubriousness) the loss I felt.
So much of the design at Hexagon is inspired by Matt Gracie, whose innate sense of art and design imprinted me with the furniture he chose for the apartment we shared, the clothing he sometimes gave me, the books he handed me to read, the cars and houses he pointed out to me on “point-and-squeal” outings. (His wording was equally brilliant!)
Here are two Hexagon bags that I collaged with Jensen-esque silver embellishments. Matt liked structured bags. Extra points if it loudly snapped shut or might hurt someone when you hustled through a crowd.
Not long ago I discovered how shockingly toxic most commercial beauty products are. What does this have to do with jewelry? Well, it turns out that costume baubles—another thing that so many women have on their bodies for much of the day—can also cause gnarly chemicals to seep into your system. This may not cause alarm in many people right now, but I predict that in the future, more women will take note. Just as foodies are picky about the provenance of their ingredients, health-conscious women will become more discerning when buying things they lay on their skin. Leonor Heleno, a jewelry designer that I admire, assures her customers that there’s no nickel or lead in her designs. (Her site is where I caught sight of the issue, and this is one of her necklaces pictured here.) Personally, I have been a (slightly guilty) fan of the ridiculously cheap and on-trend accessories at chain stores. Now I’m looking at those products differently.
Ask a bag how it wants to be embellished, and it will tell you.
The green bag is authentic exotic skin—lizard, I believe. It gave me a Galapagos vibe, so I added a gold tone turtle on which I’d added a blue multi-faceted crystal.
The lavender-colored bag is structured and felt a bit prissy to me, so I mellowed it out with a hippie-esque pink-and-gold medallion.
I broke one of my own rules on this structured black satin clutch. It’s from the ’50s. Adding an embellishment from another decade—say, the ’70s or ’80s—usually provides a needed shot of edge. Mixing it with something from its own era, however, can paint it into a corner aesthetically. This time, exceptionally, a’50s/’60s necklace squeaked by without making the accessory look too “Happy Days.”
Meet my mentor and girl crush Melissa McClure! I met this Dallas doll after flipping out over some of her jewelry designs that I spotted in a Santa Monica boutique. Tracking her down, I featured her as the first artist in a series of “Tastemaker” articles in Los Angeles magazine. She’s a bona fide goldsmith!
When I decided at the tender age of 40-cough to become a jewelry designer myself, I called her up. Melissa generously offered me lessons in the fine art of bling-making. She has taught me everything from how to open a jump ring to how not to drill holes in my hands.
In an interesting flip-de-doo, Melissa is transitioning from jewelry design into writing at the same time I am doing the opposite. (Neither of us are giving up our first loves.) You can read her fantastic stories here about entertaining and enduring life as a hot blonde woman in L.A. (it’s tough, apparently—I wouldn’t know).
Oh, and check out her jewelry, too (one style pictured here), and you’ll see why I dig it so much.
No designer works in a void. At least I don’t. I’d like to think that my ideas on proportion and scale are innate, but they are also influenced by nature and by images such as this. It’s Miami Heat power forward Chris Bosh in a bespoke suit by Waraire Boswell. Don’t you just want to know this man? Don’t you want to be walking next to him, wherever he’s going? (I think he is heading into the NBA All Star game.) I do know Waraire. He’s an L.A. native and a fabulous designer. I’m impressed by his talent for making unique, detailed suits that don’t call inordinate attention to themselves. Chanel (I think!) said something along the lines of, “Luxury must be quiet, but it must speak.”
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Copyright © 2013 All Rights Reserved
Copyright © 2013 All Rights Reserved