Glittering minds think outside the jewelry box
Lauren Crowell loves to sculpt and paint.
Having worked at beauty firm Stila since 1998, she's painted famous faces under the tutelage of company founder Jeanine Lobell. But the San Jose, California, native, who studied fine arts, specializing in ceramics, at San Jose State University, also got to show off her latest experimental sculptures.
"I'd wear my necklaces to shoots and they'd just be dangling in the faces of whoever I was doing makeup for and they'd start to ask questions," said Crowell, who took the notice to heart and earlier this year launched Leonine Design, a fashion jewelry line.
She creates one-of-a-kind beads and fobs out of clay, which she then fires in a kiln in her Manhattan apartment.
"I used to make room-size ceramic pieces," said Crowell of her art while she was in school. "I would have never seen myself in fashion back then. (Installation art is) an elitist way to talk to people, but it doesn't always reach people. Jewelry is accessible."
Crowell incorporates her love of color and proportion in earthy Mad Max-meets-surfer girl pieces, which wholesale from $100 to $650 and higher for custom body pieces.
Standouts include dramatic multistrand Y necklaces of Czech glass beads scented with myrrh that culminate in an oversize, earth tone clay fob, and an intricate hair ornament made of glass beads and clay fobs that intertwine with the hair for an ethereal look.
"I hope to keep my line small," said the 26-year-old designer, whose collection has been picked up by Kaviar and Kind in Los Angeles.
History buffs
Daniel and Michael Casarella are wild about the past of New York. When asked, they will relate bloody stories of the city's Five Points and gangster Ike Rynders after quoting Walt Whitman, of course.
The duo has been incessantly collecting 19th-century New York relics for inspiration for their three-year-old screen-printed T-shirt line, Barking Irons. Now they're putting those antiques to use with a jewelry line.
"The jewelry was a brainstorm," Daniel said. "There was always a large amount of spoons in antique shops and estate auctions, and it just made sense to me. We've got hundreds now, possibly thousands."
In their Bowery studio, the two hand-forge oxidized sterling silver rings and necklaces, using as molds antique silver spoons that are engraved with snapshots of Gotham's past, such as vintage shots of the Statue of Liberty.
Rings for men and women are forged from the spoon's handles and the spoon itself is used as a pendant for long necklaces.
"We were raised in New York and it's hard to place exactly what fascinates us," Daniel added. "It's this forgotten, paved-over history that's too good to be true."
Gemetic code
College friends Ken Leung and Dana Chin never expected to find themselves in the jewelry design world, even though Leung's family has been in the gem trade for years.
After college, Leung and Chin, who studied economics and computer engineering, respectively, came to New York to pursue their Wall Street dreams, but soon decided they wanted to do something more creative and launched their own jewelry firm, Bylu (pronounced "Blue").
"It's unlikely, but studying computer engineering has really helped me with what we're doing now, with organizing," said Chin, who, like Leung, is 27. "And we do graphics work in our studio."
The two were unsure about their new venture as it was quite a departure for them. But when Leung's girlfriend borrowed a piece and wouldn't return it, they knew they were onto something.
Bylu jewelry takes an influence from the mosaics of architect Antoni Gaudi, with a delicate, darkly organic feel.
Signature styles include a black rhodium-plated handmade silver chain necklace finished with a rough black tourmaline pendant encased in leaves of yellow gold, an oxidized silver wave bangle decorated with pieces of gold and a cocktail ring featuring a large faceted smoky quartz set in the duo's signature diamond-flecked unpolished gold leaves.
Bylu got its first taste of the limelight in 2005 when designer Doo-Ri Chung called upon the two to create jewelry to coordinate with her runway collection.
"We always go back to thinking how silly it was when we started this. We've learned a lot," said Leung.
"Day by day we're getting more comfortable in what we're doing. We're really focused on working on what inspires us and getting it all the way through," Leung added.
New York Times Syndicate
(China Daily 01/12/2007 page19)
