Gonzo Jewelry Sparks Remarks Wherever the Wearer Takes It

Lizzy Borden is hacking away at art these days.

Although the work isn’t violent as the name implies, Joan Burton--who designs jewelry under her “Lizzy Borden” label--says it’s at least rebellious.

Tiny photos of Lucille Ball, Elvis, Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Brady Bunch that are hand-painted and adorned with multicolored beads are converted into earrings, pins and bolo ties, creating conversation wherever they go.

There’s also a series of plastic dinosaurs and lizards wound with beads (the children’s line of the same series has small plastic cows and sheep). Burton has also come up with designs of brightly colored clay beads and squares worn as bracelets and necklaces.

Burton is one of many jewelry designers in Orange County who have found the area a great place to make and sell their offbeat art.

“I had to curb some of my wildness to give them mass appeal,” says Burton, 32, who still makes “weird” stuff, but only for friends. “I’ve been told by some buyers that the National Enquirer headlines laminated onto belts probably wouldn’t do well at big department stores.”

This month marks a full year that she’s been in business, after years of moving from job to job. “I’m finally in love with what I do.”

Working in an artistic field was always a dream for Burton, who grew up in Newport Beach and recently moved to Long Beach. “I was fascinated by the story of Lizzy Borden,” she says, explaining her label name.

Designing and creating her jewelry takes only a small part of her day. The rest is spent meeting with store buyers and owners, getting her art to the public. “It’s a tough job, trying to balance everything. I think I do most of my best design work late at night when it’s quiet.”

Lizzy Borden designs are sold at shops throughout the county, in various parts of this country, and in Japan and Saudi Arabia.

One of the places that sells Burton’s work is Riginals, a jewelry cart run by Raelene Redman, 26, and her sister Rhonda, 33, in Fashion Island.

The Redmans also design jewelry that features triangular turquoise earrings made of clay or small, mirrored disks decorated with paper and colorful bits of clay--the kind you would expect Judy Jetson to wear. The theme for their work is printed on every label: “We take fun things and encourage them to become jewelry.”

“It’s really trial and error,” says Raelene Redman. “We try something, see how it looks, then do it over. Sometimes we just make one and see what the reaction is here. If it sells fast, we make more.”

To get ideas, the sisters scour boutiques and department stores to see what’s hot. “Because we’re a small operation, we can get an idea and have it ready to sell the next day,” Raelene says.

What makes such avant-garde jewelry popular? “Even if a woman can’t wear the most fashionable clothes, she can always wear fashionable earrings or pins,” Raelene says.

Matthew Grant--another artist taking a ride on the newest wave of jewelry design--is holding his German shepherd by the collar and leaning out of his studio’s second-floor window to greet a visitor below.

“You’ll have to wait until I take him to another room; he’s not used to strangers.”

Then, as an afterthought, he adds: “I bought him from some crack dealers in San Francisco. My girlfriend and I felt so sorry for him, we gave them $20 and took him home.”

Grant, 35, shapes metal into varied designs to make earrings, pendants and rings from his rented, two-story, 1920s-era house in South Laguna (located, coincidentally, on Jewel Avenue).

In his work, Grant often uses an overlay process invented by the Hopi Indians and includes a series of geometric and linear shapes (“That comes from my architectural training”), as well as a collection of open palms with an eye or heart in the center.

“I saw this design of a hand holding a heart, and it intrigued me. I wanted to expand on it and do the eye in the palm as well.”

He finds inspirations in tribal or folk motifs, which may explain why his work is sold at the Los Angeles Craft and Folk Art Museum gift shop, and at local boutiques like Laura in Laguna Beach.

After studying architecture in college and building Mongol yurts (houses) on campus, Grant wanted something different. “I ended up at the Maryland Institute of Fine Arts and became a goldsmithing major. It was there that I sort of woke up a desire to work with my hands.”

Grant moved to Laguna Beach 2 1/2 years ago. “I’m not really comfortable with the rest of Orange County, but I love Laguna. It’s a nice enclave of artistic people; everyone’s supportive and open with advice.”

The search for interesting earrings six years ago led Barbara Barnett, 52, into an entirely new business--the creation and sale of the “hooker.”

“I was working on new designs for the Sawdust Festival when I came up with this odd shape. A friend of mine came over, looked at it and said it was ugly. I told her to try it on, and she loved it.”

What makes Barnett’s earrings unique--they boast a utility patent--are the fact that they hang around the ear. Her earrings combine sterling, gold and stones ranging from onyx to mother of pearl.

In her Laguna Beach studio, workers sit around a large table to assemble 120 different designs. Barnett attends to the business end, then sketches out new designs after hours. “I just get some stones together and start playing. Usually, once a week I let the staff loose to see what they can come up with.”

Hooker earrings are Barnett’s passion. “A psychic once told me years ago that I would make my fortune in jewelry. I thought she was nuts; I had never considered it before. Now, look at me.”

The psychic is now one of her best friends.