Something old, something new

Lynda Lucas of VEIN Jewelry has something made just for you

By Jamie Elizabeth Hall
Published: June 15th, 2008 | 5:45pm

Lynda Lucas began her interest in jewelry as a grabby three year old, picking up “anything that sparkled,” much to her mother’s disapproval. By her formative years, her interest in stray bits – rusty nails, broken sea shells, and stray plumage – became more innovative as Lucas began pairing her recycled treasures with the trinkets she found in grandmother’s boudoir. Lucas got out her pliers and learned how to bend, melt, and weld: the finished result was a fantastic compilation of parts, something unique, beautiful, and completely her own. Somehow fragile and feminine, yet decidedly hardy and strong, Lucas can make a miniature tea cup paired with ancient nail scissors look incredible.

“I was doing what I’d always done, but this time I was actually making something,” says Lucas. Compiling antique jewels, costume jewelry, and a hodge-podge of everyday objects, she created a magical effect – not just for her, but for friends and soon, customers too – with her VEIN Jewelry line. “Friends began to ask me to make one for them, and then their friends, and so on. That’s how it goes.” Lucas now sells her unique designs at trunk shows, design fairs, and a handful of boutiques.

“I like the idea of creating practical art; something you can wear every day, not just hang on your wall,” she says of her pieces. Her “pretties” come from multiple sources: estate sales, swap meets, antique stores, and even various dealers and vendors. “I love to hear the stories the dealers have,” Lucas confides. “Sometimes they’re so good; it’s hard to part with certain pieces. But in the end, they all find good homes.”

Lucas’ mission is “not to go all hippie on you,” she explains, sorting through a massive mountain of sparkles sure to make a magpie weep, “But I do love the idea of a sense of power and self in a jewel, a symbol you can wear. It’s part psychological, it’s yours.”

Lucas’ philosophy prompted her to choose VEIN as the name for her line. “It’s a naturally occurring pattern in the body and nature, and I love that, but it’s also tongue in cheek,” she says, “because, you know, it is jewelry – and it’s so vain.”

Biding her time between Ohio (where she’s finishing her last year at the Design Art, Architecture and Planning school in Cincinnati) and San Francisco (where she’s doing a design internship) Lucas hopes to make waves with her designs, her own network of veins running from one side of the country to the other.

View more at veinjewelry.blogspot.com and vein.etsy.com