I loved it. I wore the heck out of it. I tried to find an old photo from the time, but we didn’t have instant documentary equipment in our pockets back then. It was super long, a pop of color, the globe beads fit my 70’s girl aesthetic perfectly (I feel like the decade your independence begins to crystalize always stays with you aesthetically, even if it's just a little bit). I wore it so much that it broke within a few of years of me having it. I don’t remember the exact year. Carter was born in ’89, it might have seen its last days when he was exploring grabbing and yanking. I put it back in its ornate Japanese bag, tucked it away, and honestly didn’t think about it again. I might have briefly, during my beading days, but I was working with much chunkier stones and glass, so if it crossed my mind, it just as quickly floated on.
Fast forward about 30 years and Jerrica, who has started a jewelry business as a disguise for her astrology business, gifts me a strand of knotted carnelian beads - a punchy tomato red that has a ton of energy. She knows I love a pop of color. It jogged my memory — where the heck was that jade necklace…
A long story about my tendency toward misplacing things short (I have the best intentions!), I found it about 6 months later.
I gave it to her and said - whenever you have time. I knew it was a big project — remember, this necklace is looongggg, like a sautoir/flapper necklace or longer, maybe down to my belly button. We soft launched a collaborative collection in the style that this piece would ultimately become, and I waited. I had paired the carnelian with bright silver chain, but for this, I wanted gold.
Just after the holiday rush was over, and we both took a week off to catch our breath, she brought the necklace back to me - and let me tell you - it was worth the wait.
I had her add 18k gold Greta links from our core collection to the necklace - a small link for a relatively small bead. It was indulgent, but the jade was begging for a touch of gold. We couldn’t find 18k gold French wire to attach the chain, so we made our own (!!), a labor of love.
The texture of the French wire is one of my favorite things about this necklace now. The gold and green are deep and thoughtful. Layered with the other gold necklaces I’ve been wearing, it feels like this necklace has a whole new life. I love holding it, calling back to a time to being young and in love, longing for my future husband to come home. What a gift to tune into this younger version of myself.
I love reworking heirloom pieces like this, infused with memory, story, and lineage. I love breathing new life into something that longs for it — a renewal akin to my own renewal as an artist. How powerful to be reborn. How utterly special to alchemize a languishing heirloom, heavy with meaning, into something buoyant you can’t wait to share.
My daughter visited recently. She’s going through a creative rebirth of her own and I could not be more proud of the artist she is becoming. I showed her the necklace and told her the story - the subtext was, there’s a lot of jewelry around here. This one is special.
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LARIMAR | CARNELIAN | AQUAMARINE | MALACHITE | AURALITE-23 | IOLITE | LABRADORITE
]]>First, some backstory: Liz and I have worked with a handful of jewelry business coaches and experts over the years and we have consistently heard the same advice: pick a lane. Don’t confuse your customer by trying to be everything for everyone. Decide what you do, and do that thing. This has always been relayed to us in the context of our offering - if you want to be considered a “fine jewelry” brand, only offer fine jewelry.
This is good advice, and in many ways it has served us well. However, every now and then, Liz’s mind (and hands) produce a design that we really want to offer in gold, but the chunkiness of the piece (i.e. the weight of the final product) pushes the gold price so high that even we, in the throws of excitement over the new product, recognize it as a vanity project that will languish in the boxes that we keep inventory in.
Our new cast bangle is one such product - a product that Liz and I both worked on for so long that our eyes had crossed (her carving wax for literal days, me annoyingly finding issue with very minor characteristics - love you, Liz! Thanks for not firing me! 🫣). When it finally arrived as a finished, finished, final, redesigned 14 times, DEFINITELY FINISHED WE’RE CALLING IT product, we knew we wanted it in gold…but when we got the quote back from the caster, we realized that this bangle was going to be a $10,000 bangle (give or take with market fluctuation).
So we cast it in brass, too eager to not see it in a gold tone. We test wore it in brass. And we decided to offer it in brass...
This was a deviation from the advice of coaches. Brass was off the table for LHMS……Buttttt…….we do have one item already in brass (small brass cuff & medium brass cuff)….annnddddd we did reeeaaalllyyy want this to be available in gold tone……….(cue the type of mental gymnastics you do when you know something is a little naughty, but you are determined to do it anyway)...
We took what resonated and left the rest, as they say! We cast the damn bangle in brass and you can get yours here.
Liz has been wearing the silver and brass versions layered together and it’s a stellar, minimalist, mixed-metal look. Metal forward in just the way we love, design forward in the way only Liz can create. A chef’s kiss.
The client who's request spurred this blog had just ordered her own set of the silver and brass bangles, and she also ordered two of the silver rings, almost exactly recreating Liz’s daily look - amazing! But she included a note in her order: “can you make the ring in brass to match the bangle?”
Uh-oh…
Many of you have likely had the experience of getting an inexpensive piece of “gold” tone jewelry and it eventually turning your finger green. Well - brass looks great when its brand new, but is over 60% copper, which oxidizes to green, and when close to the acidity and porosity of the skin, that means your skin turns green as that metal oxidizes and is absorbed.
This is not something we want for our customers (or ourselves!). But this was a legitimate question - this customer had just purchased a bangle in brass - why would we not offer another product in brass, especially upon request? Why is one okay, and one isn’t? Why do we sometimes say yes and sometimes say no?
We realized there’s a component of product education that we haven’t been owning. So we are here today to break down what each metal is, and ultimately give you a good reason why we choose what we choose.
Brass is over 60% copper, mixed with zinc. Sterling silver (sometimes annotated 925 sterling) is 92.5% pure silver, with 7.5% copper, zinc, and nickel, in varying quantities. Gold gets a little more complicated…
We work with 18 karat gold primarily - 24 karat gold is 100% pure elemental gold, but it’s really too soft to use for most jewelry, so we typically go for 18k. This represents 75% pure, elemental gold — or 18 parts pure gold out of 24 total parts — which is then mixed with alloys (i.e. other metals) that make it stronger and more durable. Similarly, 14k is around 58% pure gold, with the same alloys as 18k, just in relatively larger percentages (mostly additional silver, making it lighter yellow overall). Mixing the gold with these other, stronger metals lends strength and hardness to the final product, but gradually changes the appearance of the gold. We like 18k because it retains that deep buttery yellow color that says GOLD, with the amped up durability of the alloys.
When we denied the customer request to cast the rings in brass, we thought we would figure out what the rings would cost in 10 karat gold. This is a commonly available karat weight, but one we rarely work with. We got the quote back, we sent it off to the customer. She responded promptly - "will it look the same as the photo?"
Uh-oh…
Here's a photo of the rings from our website:
The 18k rings are buttery and bright in the way that really can’t be achieved with anything other than 18k. They are true metal, in the sense that they could be buried in your back yard and left there for 100 years, and they would still shine and sing when you dug them back up.
But we knew that the change from 18k to 14k makes a visually identifiable difference in appearance, so we asked our caster for the percentage alloy composition they use for 10k gold. We learned something we knew intuitively, but couldn’t name: 10k gold has more silver in it than gold, meaning that it is much much much lighter and less “yellow gold” than 18k. Good news for lovers of white gold...bad news for our customer...
So we wrote back to our client - no, it wont look the same. We think it would look cool in its own right, but not the same as the photos on our site.
Here’s a chart showing the relative percentage gold in the different gold karat weights:
As you would imagine, the more gold a product has, the more expensive it is. That’s why our new bangle would cost over $10,000 in 18k, but costs just $299 in brass.
We offer the bangle and the hammered cuff in brass because we love the look so much in a gold tone AND we feel confident that these are pieces of jewelry that will be removed before a shower, at night, and certainly at the beach or on vacation. They are bracelets, so they rarely get involved with hand washing. All of this makes them that much less likely to oxidize and turn your skin green.
Rings are no such case.
With prolonged wear or excess chemical exposure (like sunscreen), the cuff and bangle would also turn your skin, but we have both test worn these pieces to death with an eye toward not being careful and it's never happened for either of us.
In embracing the nuances of metal choices and educating ourselves and our customers, we reaffirm our commitment to crafting heirloom jewelry that not only looks great, but stands the test of time, ensuring that each piece tells a story as unique as the wearer themselves.
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If you are with us in our studio insider group, or following along on social media, you likely know that I spent 2 weeks at Penland recently. At least once a year, I make a pilgrimage to either hone or learn a skill in the Metals Studio. This year, I had a computer malfunction at the witching hour — Penland classes fill up, and when they announced their summer workshop schedule, I knew the class I wanted to take would sell out FAST. I logged in the night before registration to make sure my login credentials were up to date, and my credit card was correct. I was ready.
The next morning, registration opened…and the website would not let me check out. “Frustrated” would be an understatement. I was devastated.
I have taken 15 classes at Penland, I credit my creative freedom and reinvigoration as an artist to the school and I love it so much that I donate 10% of my annual profits to their scholarship fund. I could not believe I was going to miss this class, that my diligent preparation had failed…the class sold out in minutes.
My sweet husband who deserves an award for heroic behavior on a normal day probably should win the Nobel Peace Prize for this day. We called the school immediately, explained what was happening, got on the waitlist, and did a lot of wishing and praying and hoping. He talked me off the proverbial ledge and helped me make rational forward progress.
I did eventually get into the class — which you knew, right? Because otherwise I would not be writing this blog? But it was a wild roller coaster and when I eventually got in, I was so elated. I felt such relief to not miss this once in a lifetime opportunity.
But Liz, you’re thinking, you’ve taken so many classes at Penland, what made this one “once in a lifetime”…and that is an excellent question. This class was called “Building on the Basics”, the teachers were Matthieu Cheminée and Tim McCreight. It is unlikely that anyone reading this recognizes those names, but they are both huge names in metalsmithing and at least 1/3rd of my most cherished and referenced metalsmithing books have either been written or published or both by one of them. Between them, they have been on the cutting edge of their craft for 80 years. I almost couldn’t believe it when I saw their names on the summer schedule.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but I’ve really spent a lot of time at Penland. I’ve never taken a class with instructors who gave as much to their students as these two men gave us. Any time a student asked about a technique or process, they would do a new demo on the spot, no holds barred. They did more demos than I could even count. Nothing was off limits. They gave and gave and gave and gave, and when they weren’t giving, they were helping us and critiquing us. I’m still unpacking everything I learned - usually at the end of class I have a TON of new work and styles, sometimes with multiple iterations already complete. I have relatively few this time, with a laundry list of things I’m itching to create from the techniques I learned.
One of my favorite moments from the class was actually before class even started. I was standing in a coffee shop line with Matthew and he said to me, “I like your jewelry… do you make your own wire and sheet?” I looked at him with a very confused look on my face, and responded, “No…why would I do that?” His response was a trailing “Oh…”, as if it was patently unusual that I didn't do that. I soon learned why he asked me that - back to basics meant melting your own metal, pouring it into ingots, forming it (i.e. hammering the shit out of it) and then making whatever you want to make. There were no shortcuts.
Another main topic of the class was stamping. Matthew wrote a book, The Art of Stamping, that teaches you how to make stamps out of anything that is “tool steel”, meaning it has the right amount of steel, the right amount of carbon in it in order to hold up to the force that you're hammering into it to stamp another metal. I found it challenging to make stamps, they have to be very crisp. Its an arduous process that involves first getting the stamp correct in plasticine, moving on to a test metal like copper, and finally trying it on the metal you want to create with, making it sharper and sharper each time. This was something I was skeptical of because LHMS is a decidedly minimalist aesthetic, and while I do love to learn new techniques even if they aren't necessarily commercially viable, I had trouble visualizing how I would implement something like PATTERN into my jewelry. To my surprise, I loved the texture and found it easy to translate it into my aesthetic once I got into my work flow. I was flooded with ideas, and came out of the class very eager to be making more and more stamps and to be adding texture into my work. I am over the moon excited about it.
I made this cuff for my husband (we will call it the Hanson Peace Prize), and I am very proud of how it came out. I love handsome jewelry for men, and it has me aching to expand our mens offering (stay tuned!)
Another topic that really caught my attention was weaving wire. I do chain all day long - its the keystone of this brand and my longest jewelry love affair. I have always been very, very much enamored with the idea of woven metal, which I tried to put into the line a few years ago with the foxtail chain. Styles like the foxtail chain and other woven or braided chain tend to be extremely labor intensive, which translates into a high retail cost. It doesn’t always work — the foxtail chain is a perfect example of something that kind of flopped, even though it was one of my favorite things I’ve ever made. Labor and artistry are not things that always translate into consumer value, even if it represents immense value and skill to me as an artist. Matthew is now working on his fourth book and it's all about chain which I'm just so excited about, I can't stand it! I created earrings and two bracelets with one of his weaving techniques and I’m still in the process of perfecting it, but right now I’m thinking it will actually make it into the line.
There was enough juice in this two week class to write 10 blogs - this is really just skimming the surface, but if you’ve made it to this paragraph, then I know you’ll be just as excited as I am for this fall collection we are launching. These new pieces conceived at Penland, as well as many others you haven’t seen will be front and center and I really cannot wait to show you. Creativity and business can sometimes seem antithetical to one another, and I am no stranger to feeling like I can't bridge the gap, but I always know that I’m on the right path when the jewelry I’m producing makes me feel more confident than ever before, more excited to show my work off, and ultimately more fulfilled as an artist. Sometimes I look at the work I’ve made and can’t believe that I made it with my bare hands…and that has never been truer than the pieces I made from pouring my own ingots during this class.
We're doing something special for our collection launch, so make sure you're on the list if you want to shop first, and get to participate
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To kick this off, we wanted to define metaphysics for you. Metaphysics is a philosophical study of phenomena that exist outside of objective experience or material reality - so when we are talking about the metaphysics of a stone or crystal, we are really talking about the psychospiritual or energetic qualities that the stone is said to impart. When working with stones and crystals, its important to know that intention is the keystone. Using appropriate crystals on your journey as tools of mindfulness can help you get where you’re going or manifest your intentions, and in the beginning that help often feels like the visual reminder of your intention. It’s a way to hold yourself accountable, and you get to feel extra put together/pretty/awesome in the process!
So, knowing that, let’s dig into the significations of diamond as an ally in your becoming.
Diamonds have held cultural and historical significance throughout human history. In ancient times, diamonds were believed to hold mystical powers and were used in various rituals. During the Middle Ages, diamonds were associated with power and wealth and were often worn by royalty and nobility to display their status. In popular western culture today, diamonds are still used as symbols of love and commitment in engagement rings and other jewelry.
Diamond is the hardest known substance on Earth, a highly stable form of carbon. They are intense - and they bring a quality of intensity and amplification to all things. This puts a greater burden than usual on the wearer to be aware of your dominant frame of mind — for example, if you are feeling blue, diamond can amplify that, so it is up to YOU to work with diamond in a mindful way to therapeutically “burn through” any negative emotions, or to pair diamond with other appropriate stones to meaningfully shift your frame of mind. Again, intentionality is the key.
As a stone of pure light, it stimulates and activates all the chakras, especially the crown and higher chakras. This is why diamonds have been traditionally associated with the divinity and access to the divine. The lesson of diamond is alchemizing the reality of the physical plane into pure light consciousness - something we can all use, but is of particular benefit to those working to heal others. Because they are so pure, diamonds promote Truth. As an amplifier, they are the perfect compliment if you are working with another stone energetically, to increase and enhance that stone’s power and effectiveness.
According to the Gemological Institute of America, the diamond industry has a long and complex history, with significant economic and social impacts. We discussed that more deeply in our blog about why we chose lab-grown diamonds (link link), but its important to bring up here again. Lab grown diamonds are real diamonds. As real diamonds, they have the same chemical make up and crystalline structure (and therefore frequency) of a diamond that grew within the Earth’s crust. In a way, because they are made in a lab under controlled circumstances, their purity is even more in focus and useful from an energetic perspective. I find that they arrive with less energetic “junk” that needs to be cleared away before they move on to you, the wearer.
Let us know what you think of diamond metaphysics and if you’re going to incorporate diamond into your tool kit, and feel free to ask us any questions!
With the launch of our diamond collection, we want to highlight an important decision Liz made early on in the process of designing this collection: Lab Grown Diamonds!
Lab-grown diamonds are created in a laboratory under controlled conditions using advanced technology, whereas natural diamonds are formed naturally deep within the earth’s crust over millions of years. While both types of diamonds have the same chemical and physical properties, lab-grown diamonds typically have fewer ethical and environmental concerns surrounding their production, and can be produced in more consistent sizes, qualities, and clarities. It is impossible to distinguish the difference with the naked eye, but lab grown diamonds do tend to come with a microscopic inscription that can only be viewed under a special microscope specific to gemologists.
Despite being indistinguishable from an optical and chemical perspective — they are real diamonds — lab-grown diamonds are around 30% less expensive than natural diamonds, making them an attractive option for makers and consumers alike. This is because the advanced technology used to create lab grown diamonds has a lower production bottom line than massive mining operations, which lowers the costs for makers and jewelers, and ultimately you, too!
Unlike natural diamonds, lab-grown diamonds are not associated with unethical practices such as child labor and human exploitation. They are produced in a controlled environment, which ensures that workers are treated fairly and ethically, and tend to be produced in countries with better standards for workers and workplaces.
Mining for natural diamonds has a significant impact on the environment, including soil erosion, deforestation, and water pollution, to name only the barest few. In contrast, lab-grown diamonds are produced with minimal environmental impact and are, therefore, a more sustainable option.
Lab-grown diamonds are virtually indistinguishable from natural diamonds in terms of appearance and quality. They are made using the same chemical and physical properties as natural diamonds, making them just as durable and long-lasting. From a scientific standpoint, a legal standpoint, a chemical standpoint — you name it! Lab grown diamonds are the real deal, baby!
After we spent quite a bit of time researching what to do, ultimately Liz chose lab-grown diamonds over natural diamonds because it felt like the smart and responsible decision. We can deliver the same look, durability, and quality to you, while making a better ethical choice for our Earth and the humans on it, and we get to do all of that at a savings to you.
Instagram ads are constantly showing us barely there chains with the faintest hint of a pendant, or earrings so tiny that Liz and I often wonder if they would go straight through our ear holes…and we aren’t saying we don’t like this jewelry! We both have a few pieces that would fall into the “delicate” category, and I myself love to layer delicate pieces with chunkier ones. However, we have both been feeling so excited and refreshed to see chunkier styles gracing the pages of some of our favorite fashion mags lately.
In fact, chunky, statement jewelry is kind of everywhere right now…from Beyonce (yes you read that correctly, Queen Bey herself) to the Spring 2023 runways, to the pages of Garden & Gun. Liz traveled recently and sent me all the amazing chunky chain ads (pictured above) that she saw in the magazines as she flew back and forth and I was so inspired, I have been wearing my gold Eliza Necklace a TON more.
The thing I love about the Eliza (I have the bracelet and the necklace) is that I can link them together, so I really get to have three pieces of jewelry instead of just two. This means I can layer the Eliza look with anything I want!
Our chunkiest statement necklaces are the Annie and the Uma - these are pieces that are such big, bold statements that they don’t honestly layer well with other necklaces like the Eliza does (read: does not play well with others). However, they make such a powerful statement on their own, they are absolutely fit for the red carpet or your next big event (or job interview, hello confidence!).
Shop the Looks: Annie Necklace, Uma Necklace
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Some classic silhouettes to consider for your capsule collection are hoops, small studs, and chain-link necklaces and bracelets.
At LHMS, we know the power of a chunky chain look. It’s the crux of our line and the playground that Liz delights upon most. One of the best things about chain is that it can be worn alone or layered - but the layers should always take length and weight into consideration. Too much of the same layered together can look messy or over-wrought. When you vary visual weight (i.e. how heavy a chain looks, regardless of how it feels), texture, and length, you will achieve a neckmess that looks edgy and refined, purposeful and powerful all at the same time.
Shop layerable chain necklaces: Mini Ina in Gold | Petite Oval Chain | 18" Eliza
We love a chain bracelet look as well - especially when it is the guest of honor at an arm party.
Shop arm party VIPs: Little Sister Bracelet | Eliza Bracelet | C Bar Bangle
A classic hoop silhouette never gets old - it looks good dressed up and dressed down. Really! You can wear hoop earrings with athleisure and it only makes each of those things look cooler than they do individually. Hoops are magic in that way…
Liz loves to turn the hoop on its head and have the shape face outward, instead of to the side. This calls the geometry of the piece forward and ensures a bold presentation.
Shop updated hoop earrings: Circle on Cast Bar | Organic Ovals
Another minimal jewelry foundational item is a pair of simple stud earrings in your favorite metal - these are earrings that you almost never take off. The ones that go with everything.
Especially if you have more than one earring hole on each ear, a pair of simple studs end up being the wardrobe workhorse that gets no credit. We love our studs, especially Jerrica, our digital-do-it-all girl – we've talked before about how studs are a great way for moms of young children to still feel put together without attracting the urge for tiny hands to yank, and Jerrica can confirm this as a mom of a 2 year old.
Shop studs: Mini Disc in Gold and Silver | Oval #24 | Half Inch Bar Earrings
We love minimal jewelry - and we aren’t the only ones. Consider this quote from a 2020 Vogue article about minimal jewelry:
"These everyday pieces and designs pay close attention to the details and are what gives them their subtle yet significant difference in style. [...]minimalist jewelry brings a timeless and sophisticated approach to small, standalone statements—like a pair of contemporary tubular hoops or an oversized classic chain-link bracelet that you can wear every day. All of which doesn’t come close to boring."
Life is hard enough - simplify your morning routine by adding timeless, minimalist jewelry that you can wear with any outfit, for any occasion.
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]]>Earlier this spring, I got back from something I’ve unintentionally come to do every year - my family owns a coastal vacation house that is rented out most of the year, but during the off season, we sneak away for a “working month”. We call it a working month because my husband and a close family friend do all the maintenance the house requires, any projects we’ve been wishing to do there, and I get to spend the month getting really creative and dreaming in my satellite studio without the pressure of production and order fulfillment. The last few years, there has been a lot of wax carving. This is the first step for any of my cast collection pieces, and it’s at once a meditative, creative expression, as well as a meticulous and exacting exercise. Some days I spend the entire day carving one thing, only to break it at the end of the day, rendering it useless, knowing I have to try again tomorrow. On these days, I am thankful for wine and the Vacation Diet (you know, the one you love while you’re eating it, and begin to regret as soon as you start the drive home…). Some days, the process is triumphant and the finished product is so precious and bursting with potential energy that I get it packaged for casting and sent out the very next morning.
During my working month, both of these situations happened - I had successes and failures, I developed new products that I can’t wait to show you and I developed some flops that you’ll probably never see. One of the new things, something I have been dreaming about for a loooooooong time, has finally turned out and I am so excited about it. Some of the cast collection bracelets still had fabricated hooks and clasps that, while doing their job and at least being handmade, weren't quite right.
Now, the Eliza, the Greta, and a new bracelet, yet to be named and debuted (though we are thinking it will be the Madge, after a very close friend - stay tuned) all feature a hook clasp that perfectly marries sculpture and metalsmithing. I’m in love with its curvature - something both beautiful and so functional, that truly elevates each bracelet to a whole new level of badass.
Here is the crescendo of silver: enjoy 🖤
It was important to me to find a way to incorporate this new technique while also keeping my minimal/geometric aesthetic in mind. The surface texture and embellishment add new variety to my traditionally monochromatic work. When the “fusion” is complete, I have found that I prefer to oxidize the silver to create a high-contrast black background from which the gold can stand out and glow.
So how does it work, you ask? To start, I begin with a piece of 24k gold that I draw down through my rolling mill to the exact thickness that I want. With an exacto knife, I cut the pieces of gold that I will use to place on the fine silver. Carefully heating the silver, I use a braising rod to rub the gold onto the silver surface. After making sure that no edges are sticking up and that all of the gold is firmly in place, I’m ready to make any finishing touches to the piece, attaching components, oxidation, adding posts to earrings, etc. This is one of the more time consuming and precise processes in my studio, but it has really fueled my creative drive since the class ended and I have so much fun making these pieces.
I debuted this as a limited collection in time for Christmas last year, but I’m currently in the process of growing the collection to include more styles. A big gold fusion shop update is coming later this spring, and I cannot wait for you to see the styles! Follow along on instagram for progress reports 🖤
]]>As for me, like I said up there ^, one of the main events I was planning for this year (The Visual Arts Center of Richmond's Craft + Design showcase) has been moved online. I would love, love, love to see you shopping with the incredible artisans featured on Craft + Design’s online show this year. I know online trade shows can be difficult to navigate and none of us need more time on our devices, but shows like this buoy holiday sales and all artisans, myself included, who were planning to exhibit will have invested big time in their available stock for the show. There are some amazing artists exhibiting, some whose work I proudly have in my own home. And, of course, I would love for you to shop my jewelry - there are new collections and pieces that I am so very proud of that I designed with you in mind. Registration to attend begins in November, and the show is November 19th through 21st. The schedule and other details have not been announced yet, but it is likely that artists will go live or upload video showcasing their products or their process. This is an amazing opportunity to get off-the-beaten-path gifts for your loved ones, handmade and heirloom items they won't find anywhere else.
To make this collection, I use different size popsicle sticks to get the perfect elongated, thin link. Who knew something so beautiful could have such humble roots!
Paperclip chain is in the zeitgeist right now and I found myself wishing there was a less machine-made looking option. I love the way these links turned out — they’re regular in form because they are made by consistently wrapping wire around the popsicle stick, but they retain the uniqueness of being each handmade. The clasp on the necklaces and bracelets are also handmade, so when your necklace gets turned around (as it always does), it looks purposeful and continuous. In the photo below, I have some links lined up to be soldered and you can see how the links are all just slightly different - I love being able to see the evidence of craft behind a piece of jewelry:
Jerrica has been test wearing several of the pieces in this collection over the last few months and loves the paperclip chain and bracelet combination because she can wear them each separately as desired, but she has taken to linking the bracelet and the necklace end-to-end to make a 23” necklace — or, as she says, the perfect layering length! Here's a comparison of the choker and the choker + bracelet on a model:
The earrings have gotten nothing but positive feedback because they are so lightweight that even the extra long chandelier (which packs a mighty bold punch when worn) feels almost like you aren’t wearing earrings at all. My daughter, Caroline, has been loving the tiny two-link earrings for everyday wear, and I know to trust her opinion on what actually works for “everyday” because she has a toddler. My personal favorite has been the longer chain with a teardrop pendant. I love the play of the airy texture of the chain juxtaposed with the weight of the solid silver pendant. And for all my gold lovers out there - all the pieces are available in 18k gold as well!
I have had the best time developing this collection over the last several months and I am so excited to introduce it to you. Handmade chain is one of my true loves and a large part of why I got into metalsmithing in the first place, so I hope you love it as much as I do. The collection is available here — happy shopping 🖤 ]]>
Chain has always fascinated me, especially chunky chain, the kind with substance that you can spot on someone from a distance. I even like the big spools of chain that you find in Lowes in all different sizes - some galvanized, some in yellow or black plastic. Recently, my daughter and I have begun a dream-project (I’ll talk more about this in an upcoming blog) that required us to clean out an old barn on our property. During that clean out process, I found a piece of really old chain broken & buried under the years. It was beautiful. I saved this chain. I photographed this chain. If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen this chain - that’s how much I loved it. Chain always catches my eye.
One of the reasons I wanted to start carving wax & casting was to be able to make my own shapes that I could turn into custom chain links for necklaces and bracelets. I had been sketching and dreaming of making these links for a long time, and finally took some wax carving classes with Kate Wolf. She’s a badass wax carving guru located in Maine and I felt electric with ideas after those classes and workshops. The first substantial necklace I dreamed about was the Uma Necklace. It had 10 oval chain links anchored by a round disc in the center and joined together by silver sheet connectors that I fabricated and finished with a custom clasp.
As I said, it was substantial. I’m a tall woman and, as a lot of makers do, I often make jewelry to fit myself. However, for more petite women, these pieces can be overwhelming. I needed to redesign this necklace to fit someone with a smaller frame. Enter the Annie Necklace. My good friend Annie is a petite woman. Not afraid to wear a statement necklace, but petite none-the-less. I wanted to design something that could sit next to the Uma Necklace, but that she could wear comfortably day to day. I needed to make the links smaller and the overall feeling lighter. I kept the fabricated connectors and clasp the same. Perfect.
When I design a new piece, I always wear it for a while. Prototyping the pieces in this way ensures that they are wearable when they end up in a customer’s hands. It also helps me understand how to talk about the piece, because I have lived in it. I loved the Uma and I loved the Annie visually, but they just weren’t passing my comfort and wearability testing. When this happens, it always feels like a failure at first. I get so excited about the new piece and then...it’s a flop? Ugh. Back to the drawing board.
What wasn’t working? Why didn’t it feel right? The connecting pieces between the chunky new links were hindering fluid movement. They were stiff. It was as good a place to start as any... I needed to go back to the bench.
I carved a new connecting link to be cast which I hoped would give it more stability. It was a bear to carve - striking the balance between visual cohesion and lightweight wearability means getting the wax very thin...and the thinner the wax, the higher the risk that it crumbles in your hands.
When this link arrived back from the caster, I knew I had done it. It was perfect. I quickly put together a new Annie necklace with exclusively cast components and, although I wore it for a couple weeks to be sure, I knew instantly that it was now ready for customers to see and feel it. This process took months. There were so many ups and downs, so many moments that I wanted to say - it can’t be done - but ultimately it led me to a best-seller that is fully customizable based on height and an anchor for my cast collection.
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