2020-05-01_Lapidary_Journal_Jewelry_Artist

By Deborah Yonick,

jewelry style expert

POLKA DOTS MADE AN UNUSUALLY

strong showing in the spring-summer

2020 ready-to-wear lines, peppered

liberally through the collections of

Tory Burch, Kate Spade, Carolina

Herrera, Michael Kors, and Tommy

Hilfi ger, to name just a few.

Peppy and positive, polka dots

have always been considered a pat-

tern staple, but had taken a back

seat the past few seasons to animal

prints and plaids. Trend trackers,

however, started noticing last July

the popularity of polka dots ris-

ing, from runways and red carpets

to streetwear like the Zara polka

dot dress that went viral with mass

consumers.

How fi tting to fi nd that the jewelry

artists of the American Jewelry De-

sign Council (AJDC), in their annual

2019 design challenge, chose polka

dots as the inspiration to drive their

themed creations.

Twenty-nine member artists cre-

ated a piece for the project that

they shared with each other at their

September 2019 retreat in Austin,

Texas. Since 1995, AJDC has hosted

a theme project, where members

of the group are given one word or

concept idea that has been voted on

by a committee. Each member is to

interpret the word or concept in any

way they choose, which Diana Vin-

cent, project committee chair, says is

always a challenge for everyone.

“The theme pushes our members

to think beyond the work they’ve

been doing and the way they’ve

been thinking,” Vincent describes,

noting that the polka dots concept

inspired her to visualize a striking

pear-shaped chrysocolla drusy she

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Trends

has had for seven years, waiting to

reveal itself in the right design, as

the body of a fantasy moth framed

by silver and 18K gold wings dotted

in small, round turquoise, moon-

stone, opal, peridot, and diamond

accents. The project, she says,

invites designers to a place in their

mind they’d never have gone on

their own, providing the benefi t of

discovering new personal ideas.

After the initial “wow” factor from

seeing each fi nished piece, the best

part of the artist retreat is unpack-

ing how each designer created

something so diff erent from one

another on the same theme, says

Vincent, who describes the experi-

ence as an empowering show-and-

tell among peers.

The history of polka dots is

fi lled with colorful images of song

CONNECTING THE

DOTS

Polka dots are trending big in

fashion and jewelry design

KA DOTS MADE AN UNUSUALLY

g showing in the spring-summer

dt li d

dots as the inspiration to drive their

themed creations.

T t i b ti t

Susan Helmich

Lucky Ladies Ring

Hand-carved coral, black jade,

sterling silver

PHOTO: SARA REY Zoltan David

Polka Dot Pendant

Peruvian pink opal, pink

sapphires, diamonds,

palladium, platinum

PHOTO: PATTI DAVID

18 LAPIDARY JOURNAL JEWELRY ARTIST

18 Trends_PolkaDots_MayjJune20.indd 18 3/16/20 3:34 PM