Month: September 2011

Aroha Silhouettes Jewelry

We all have addictions, some are just more socially acceptable (and legal) than others. A few I will admit to in public include watching reruns of The Office, my weekly pint of Ciao Bella Dark Chocolate Sorbet, and checking my email as if my life depended on it. Hey, I’m a mom, I’m not exactly snorting coke off of pool boys in the Hamptons anymore (that never really happened). The Molecular Addictions Collection of jewelry from Aroha Silhouettes transforms the molecular symbols for a few common addictions — caffeine, nicotine, and THC (the active ingredient in cannabis) into a line of lightweight stainless steel necklaces. The symbol for MDMA, aka ecstasy, is forthcoming in mid-October. I’m not endorsing any of these vices, but rather the beautiful way they have been interpreted into jewelry design (in fact I think people who drink caffeine are completely morally bankrupt). New Zealand-born designer Tania Hennessy (now based in Vancouver) started Aroha Silhouettes in 2008 when she launched the Phantasmal collection of 3D jewelry designs made from a box of …

Pico Jewelry Collections

Montclair, New Jersey-based industrial designer Andrea Panico has designed tabletop pieces for furniture retailer west elm, served as director of product design for the world-renowed (and single-monikered) designer Clodagh, and worked at the international design firm STUDIOS Architecture. Her work with jewerly began during her graduate studies in Industrial Design at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and her Pico collection of jewelry is now produced in Indonesia by a team of skilled artisans the designer met while working with a furniture manufacturer in Bali (all wood used in the collection is scrap wood from nearby factories). Panico’s Little Architecture line, with almost 70 skus, translates the work of architects Santiago Calatrava, Luis Barragan, Tadao Ando, and others, into small scale jewelry structures including earrings, pendants, bracelets, and necklaces. Her accompanying Frank Lloyd Wright collection successfully brings a modern edge to Wright’s Prairie School style. Constructed primarily from silver, Indonesian teak, and ebony, the line is sophisticated and modern without crossing over into avant-garde and uncomfortable (I strongly prefer it to most of Frank Gehry’s pieces available from …