Lucia Antonelli’s colorful, soulful jewelry answers call to create joy

A jewelry maker celebrated for finding beauty in earthy tones takes a delightfully bold turn to vibrant colors with her latest collection.

Lucia Antonelli, an artist with Italian roots who is acclaimed internationally, transforms found and reclaimed materials into one-of-a-kind necklaces.

For Boogie Woogie Beauty, she leaves her comfort zone and returns to Bakelite, the supple, colorful synthetic that is a favorite material of jewelry makers. Antonelli often worked with Bakelite as an emerging jewelry artist.

“I embraced the notion of doing a color show with Bakelite,” she says enthusiastically. “I began breathing, eating, sleeping, dreaming Bakelite shapes and colors. It is a rich and fun material that lends itself perfectly with the tiny seed beads.”

Antonelli arrives just as nature reawakens for spring, continuing a particularly rich and earthy exploration at Patina. For 2018, curators Allison and Ivan Barnett, owners of Patina, created a series of exhibitions around the theme Seasons of the Soul.

Treasures for spring are an apt framework for Antonelli – known, for instance, for unearthing French brass beads from a late-19th century handbag and reimagining them as adornment for the woman of today.

“The calling to create has a much higher purpose,” says the artist from Northern California. “Joy is never tiring. It is a necessity”

She is one of the rare makers who can create pieces that are equal parts ornament and keepsake, and that is precisely what she delivers – braided strands, vibrant beadwork and flowing tassels.