As future metalsmith and jewelry artisan Lauren Blais grew up in Rhode
Island, she became hooked on fashion and design. With the goal of becoming a fashion designer in her sights, she took several courses at the Rhode Island School of
Design to achieve it. However, when Balis took a Beginning Jewelry
course her plans slowly changed and by the time she worked with Providence artist
Boris Bally; jewelry became her career goal.
After RISD, she enrolled at the Massachusetts College of
Art to study small metals and how to be a metalsmith. After graduating in
2008, Blais opened her own studio. The jewelry she makes is influenced by
Victorian Mourning jewelry worn by Queen Victoria of England upon the death of
her beloved husband Albert. She wore black dresses and jewelry to match often made from jet
or another dark material like tortoise shell.
This spurred others in the country and across Europe to want their own
mourning jewelry to celebrate loved ones they lost too.
The mourning jewelry
of the time was intricate in detail and held great beauty some pieces were made
from the same elements as Queen Victoria’s and others were created from human hair,
featured photos of a loved one, or a carved cameo likeness set in gold
or silver. Blais wants her jewelry to have the same feel and to tell a story.
Only she wants the story to continue beyond creation but keep going as the jewelry passes from one customer to another family member and then to another
and so forth each generation.
The materials Blais uses are leather, fur, silver, raw
gemstones, and gold – often pairing two or more of these elements together into
a piece or pieces of jewelry. She also
makes each component of the jewelry as much as possible by hand whether it is
the links that create a necklace chain or the clasp of a bracelet. Blais
strives overall to ensure her jewelry blends the old and new together to create
unique pieces of jewelry.
Last year I found Lauren Blais jewelry in a happy accident
surfing the Internet and I knew I had to add her pieces to the cliptomania.com
website. You can see them by clicking on
Gemstones and choosing the sub category Jewelry Sets.
