Virtual Reality: Lucy Machine
Our ongoing Etsy series puts you in front of Vanna White’s would-be jewelry designer.
Posted by: Katie Ormsby on May 30, 2011 at 08:00AM
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SLIDESHOW: Sarah Loertscher began working with metal in 2000. Now her all-metal jewelry is available on Etsy.
View Slideshow » Illustration:Loertscher describes her jewelry as “kind of clean, kind of chaotic! It depends on what piece it is…though all relate back to crystal structures and have a clean, minimal slant.”
View Slideshow » Illustration:“I’m fascinated with the way that something made purely of hard edges and angles can grow as organically as a flower,” she says. “And I love looking at diagrams, charts of any sort, and field guides. I’m inspired by a healthy mix of order and natural chaos,” says the jeweler. Not coincidentally, her studio is covered in colorful diagrams and filled with an eclectic mix of trinkets and stones.
View Slideshow » Illustration:The artist’s favorite crystal-inspired piece? “Right now it’s this brooch, which took a bit of inspiration from the Cave of Crystals in Mexico,” she says. Take a look at the cave on the National Geographic website.
View Slideshow » Illustration:You might be wondering, where does the name Lucy Machine come from? A dog, actually. “I used to house-sit for my friends Mark and Kate in North Carolina, who have a dog named Lucy. One day Mark mentioned that he needed to take ‘the Lucymachine’ for a walk, and I loved the way it sounded. It’s such a cool name! So when I started my Etsy site, I named it Lucy Machine as a nod to Lucy, Mark, and Kate.”
View Slideshow » Illustration:In addition to her Etsy shop, Loertsher’s jewelry is also available at Fancy and Click! Design That Fits.
Sarah Loertscher’s obsession with all things sparkly began at age five. “I loved watching Wheel of Fortune,” she recalls, “so I could see Vanna White in her always glittery dresses. My family would make fun of how much I loved her.” Even back then she was thinking of what to make for her dream client. “I would painstakingly inch up our enormous driveway looking for the faceted fake-gold rock,” she remembers.
Now Loertscher specializes in all-metal jewelry, which has a modern, urban vibe. It may seem like quite the jump from the Barbie-like Vanna. But Loertscher insists that her current work goes hand-in-hand with her childhood love of Vanna’s gowns and fool’s gold.
She studied metal as an art major in college, and she’s found that working with the material allows her to focus her interest in “facets, rocks, and sparkling glints of light.” You can see nods to rocks and crystals throughout her collection at the Etsy shop Lucy Machine, and in the slideshow here.
Tags: Jewelry, Locally Designed, Etsy.com, Seattle Etsy, Virtual Reality
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