times, she points out: “They would
use reeds and blow air through bam-
boo pipes to concentrate the fl ame.”
Despite the fast-growing demand
for her jewelry, she still makes it
all herself using the most primitive
tools. “I don’t use any electricity
except a fl ex shaft to drill holes,
just to make my life easier,” she
says. “I don’t have much use for
electric tools.”
Her jewelry has that deep yellow
luminescence of ancient gold, a col-
or she achieves with an alloy of high-
karat gold with silver and copper.
“The copper gives it that warmth
of ancient gold, which is chemically
very similar — almost identical — to
the majority of high-karat gold jew-
elry you see represented in ancient
collections: Greek, Roman, Egyptian,
even Korean and Indian,” Nicole
says. “Anything that looks like that
color is basically the same.”
Her own alloy was developed not
just to resemble the original ancient
gold but “for very practical reasons.”
She combines 22K gold with just
enough fi ne silver and copper to
allow her to fuse her granulation and
the links in the chains she weaves. “If
there were any more copper, I’d have
to solder it,” she says.
Until recently, she made this alloy
herself. Recently, she began buying
it as sheet and wire from Hoover &
Strong, well known for working in
recycled and fair-mined gold.
Selling Point
Nicole is fi nally learning contempo-
rary metalsmithing techniques, but
the primitive methods she employs
have become a selling point — es-
pecially for men. While most of
her jewelry is designed for women,
about 70 percent of her customers
are men.
The men who buy from her range
in age from about 30 to 60, skew-
ing younger overall than her fe-
male customers, who are usually
jewelry collectors in their 50s and
60s, educated and interested in art.
While many of her male customers
are buying jewelry for the women in
their lives, they often buy the most
substantial pieces for themselves,
including chains, big rings with gem
carvings, and leather necklaces with
big gold clasps.
Men are often attracted to a dif-
ferent aspect of her jewelry than the
women. “I give them a bit of infor-
mation on the gemstones from an
investment standpoint,” she says.
“I think that’s part of it, but in terms
of the jewelry, I sense my collection
is attracting men because they like
the science behind it.
“Men seem more interested in
the alloys and the diff erent types of
ancient metalsmithing. Women are
sometimes interested in that but
they tend to be more into the aes-
thetics and the romance of the story,
the diff erent gods or civilizations.”
All those aspects have become
integral to her line, one an extension
of the other. Rather than specializing
in the jewelry of one specifi c time
period or civilization, she tends to
mix it up. At Vegas jewelry week this
summer, she launched an Egyptian
line showcasing scarab earrings with
triangular diamond-set heads, and
rings set with gems carved as frogs,
dogs, and other Egyptian gods. Now
she’s working on a line inspired by
Viking culture.
As fresh as it all looks, if you
don’t love ancient gold you prob-
ably won’t love Loren Nicole jewelry.
“It’s not for everyone. My client is
probably one to three percent of the
world’s population,” she says with a
laugh. “I recognize how limited it is
and I’m totally fi ne with that. What
I’ve found is that I’m attracting col-
lectors, not one-off purchases.”CATHLEEN MCCARTHY has covered
jewelry and business for Town & Country, JCK,
The Washington Post, and her own site, The
JewelryLoupe.com. She also writes the Net Profi ts
column for Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist and
http://www.interweave.com/jewelry.In Context
REVIVAL, PAGE 44Find the
Artist
WWW.LOREN-NICOLE.COMMore on
Revivalists
“Jewelry
Revivals,
Ancient to
Modern”
LAPIDARY
JOURNAL
JEWELRY
ARTIST,SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017
http://www.interweave.com/jewelrySEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019 51