About two and a half years ago, jewelry designer Pamela Love made an offhand remark to her mentor, Karen Harvey, about wanting to partner with a company she believed in\u2014\u201cyou know, like Shinola,\u201d she said. Harvey\u2019s response: \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you say so?\u201d As it turned out, Harvey knew Shinola\u2019s founder. After a quick call, she learned he was looking for a designer who could help the brand move into the jewelry category. The collection Love designed with Shinola debuted in October 2016, marking the beginning of a beautiful Love story.<\/p>\n
Spend a few minutes with Pamela Love and you\u2019ll quickly discover one of her most endearing qualities: She\u2019s almost totally analog. <\/p>\n
\u201cI hate computers,\u201d Love says on a recent afternoon in her studio. \u201cI don\u2019t like to be tied to the desk. I want to work with my hands and I also want to move around a lot. Everyone here thinks it\u2019s mind-boggling.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Jewelry designer Pamela Love (pictured above)<\/p>\n
Yet, it makes perfect sense: Love\u2019s jewelry, which she\u2019s been crafting since 2007, is earthy, organic, handmade\u2014and heavy on symbols and motifs borrowed from astronomy, astrology, alchemy, botany and, especially, the American Southwest.<\/p>\n
One of the biggest challenges Love faced in capturing the look and feel of the classic American styles that make up the Shinola line\u2014think ID bracelets, signet rings and hoop earrings in silver and 14k gold\u2014was marrying her own identity with the brand\u2019s aesthetic. After countless late nights, Love and design director Krys Maniecki developed the concepts to bring the Shinola line to life.<\/p>\n
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All of the design work takes place at Love\u2019s fourth-floor workshop in Manhattan\u2019s Garment District, a 3,000-square-foot space brimming with folk art, crystals and ceramics (a colorful Moroccan rug in the hallway is a sign that visitors have come to the right place). Much of the artwork is created by friends and family.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s really nice to keep the work of your friends close,\u201d Love says.<\/p>\n
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But the eye-catching d\u00e9cor is merely a backdrop to the real action. Everything in the Pamela Love and Shinola jewelry collections passes through the Manhattan studio. While the bulk of the Shinola line is manufactured in Los Angeles by Love\u2019s longtime manufacturing partner, designs and prototypes are handled here by Love\u2019s three bench jewelers\u2014Aldon Pascall, Theresa Lee and Gaby Bush\u2014and overseen by production director Nicole Hendry, studio manager Nate Penney and Maniecki.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s a manufacturing space,\u201d Love says. \u201cIt\u2019s not somewhere where you\u2019re going to put a coffee table and books and not have them covered in metal dust.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her point is amplified by the sounds of metal being soldered, polished and sanded; the whirring of the ultrasonic jewelry cleaner; and the grinding of ball bearings inside a tumbler.<\/p>\n
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Penney, who joined the company as a bench jeweler in 2010\u2014shortly after graduating from the Cleveland Institute of Art with a degree in jewelry metals\u2014says the team is gearing up to produce Love\u2019s newest collection. \u201cThey\u2019re finishing up a last set of samples,\u201d he explains. As if on cue, Pascall, a native of the Caribbean island of Tobago with 40 years\u2019 experience at the bench (eight of those years spent with Pamela Love), begins hammering away at a chunk of metal.<\/p>\n
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The sound of jewelry being made coupled with the easy conversation that flows between Love\u2019s artisans imbues the workshop with an industrious, homey vibe, heightened by the smell of freshly baked banana bread that someone has set out on a table. And unlike most New York studios, the space feels remarkably roomy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a couple open seats and extra flex shafts,\u201d Penney says, referring to the motorized rotary tool\u2014used to grind, polish and manipulate metal\u2014that hangs from a stand positioned next to each bench.<\/p>\n
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Penney\u2019s remark hints at something Love touches on later. \u201cThe whole goal with Shinola is to hire as many jewelers as possible and have them grow with the company,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
All of which suggests the next chapter of Shinola\u2019s Love story will be its finest.<\/p>\n