We are talking with Loretta Lam to discuss jewelry design concepts. By way of introduction, for those not already familiar with your work, Loretta, could you please provide us with some of your background and how jewelry design became your passion?

I think that I have always been a jeweler. One of my earliest memories is sitting in my mother’s kitchen with her button box and stringing necklaces out of buttons, at maybe three years of age. I mean, it’s a really early memory. It was a big thrill. Growing up in the 70s, I did all the crafts that everyone was doing. I grew up in the country — and our schools didn’t have a fancy art department — so I went to a local craft store and took a silversmithing class. And that was “it!” I was done. I had found my passion! I went to college for silversmithing. It was a Fine Arts program, but there wasn’t a big emphasis on design as it pertains to jewelry. There was a core curriculum of design courses that were part of the fundamentals of the art program, but it didn’t ever get broken down to a fine level.

When I started my business, selling my jewelry and teaching, I realized that there was a gap in people’s understanding of what makes good jewelry design. I’d been studying jewelry design all my life, trying to fill this gap for myself. So it occurred to me that I could teach people how to design better jewelry. I did lots research. Every book I picked up that included “jewelry design” on the cover had maybe five pages inside. And I thought, That’s not enough! I can do better.

I know of several people who have transitioned into jewelry making from being designers in other fields, such as graphic design or clothing design. Does jewelry design use the same theory or principles as other types of design?

Yes. I came to the realization that there wasn’t a specific book for jewelry or ceramics or furniture, etc., because we are all using the same concepts. There is two-dimensional design, flat design, (for example: painting, photos, and prints), and three-dimensional design, or design “in the round,” for sculpture and objects. And then there is jewelry. I like to call it “2.5D.” Mostly, we view jewelry from the front, close to the body. That’s two-dimensional, like looking at a picture on the wall. But then there are some things, like rings and earrings, that stand away from the body and are viewed in the round. So sometimes three-dimensional principles are needed as well.

But design is the same across media. Different mediums focus on different aspects of the design lexicon. For example, graphic design focuses on things that get your attention, because it’s about marketing. Fine craft focuses on function as well as how a thing looks. But if you’re talking about the basics of good composition, they are consistent, from furniture making to fashion, coffee mugs to earrings, as well as painting and sculpture. It’s all the same thing.

You started out in silversmithing, but now you are very active in the polymer clay space. Are the design principles different?

Yeah. They really aren’t different.

When I was in school, I was focused on enamels, plus I have a minor in painting. So for me, it has always been about color design. I think we all have our strengths and weaknesses, and I’m very confident with color. And I don’t think that’s anything I learned in college, as much as what I’ve experienced and lived with throughout my life. If there is such a thing as natural talent, then maybe this is mine. Color is how I express my artistic ideas, and polymer clay gave me immediate access to the color I wanted to use.

But artists are interested in any number of things. I have students who work with wire, so line is really important to them. Perhaps you are all about texture or maybe you are focused on a sculptural effect. Donna Veverka, https://www.donnavjewelry.com, is inspired by Roman and Greek architecture. She fashions her ideas into jewelry that is dimensional. Depending on your interests, different parts of the design language are going to be more important to your work.

How long have you been teaching, by the way?

Well, I’ve been studying art all my life. It really is my whole world. I’ve read all the books about artists and their process and about composition and design, just all the things that we do. It’s been a lifelong study. I’ve been in business for 26 years and teaching for 24 years, about 13 years of writing articles and, of course, the book, that sort of thing.

In discussions of design, we often talk about “finding your voice.” What does it mean to find your voice? And how do you go about doing that?

Well, “your voice,” is like a signature. It’s a quality that’s in the work that makes it different from other people. It’s “your” voice. If we were singing in a choir together, each of us, even if we were on the same note, would have a slightly different quality to our voice. So your voice is your unique set of expressions. It’s an amalgam of your interests, abilities, and those visual elements you just love. The bits and pieces that you choose, over and over again, that come together to say, this is a signature piece, different from anybody else’s in the world.

Would it be accurate to compare “voice” to handwriting?

Exactly, yeah. Art is self-expression. Part of the problem that I see with people struggling to find their voice is that they’ve taken all these technique or project-based workshops, where they copied what the teacher made. But they didn’t learn how to decide what to make and how to make creative choices. They took classes which taught them either a technique or a project, and it taught them how to make a particular thing, but it didn’t tell them what to make, so they made what the teacher made.

Art is self-expression. That means you have to have the idea of what to make, and you have to have the drive to make it. All the choices you make when you’re designing and creating something is what makes up an individual’s voice. Let’s talk about Impressionist Art. You would never confuse a Rubens or a Monet. Yet, they use the same colors and the same paint. It’s all just brushstrokes on canvas. But you recognize them as distinct artists. So what’s the difference? It’s voice. The way they express themselves, the things they emphasize, and the choices they made along the way.

I call finding your voice “personal archaeology.” What you need to do is find out the things that really move you, that really turn you on, trip your trigger. Figure out what you really love and need to include in your life. Combine that with things that you are curious about and the techniques you love, and you’re getting close! These bits and pieces of information are often found in unusual places.

I always tell the story of learning to cook. When I was ten, the first thing my mother let me do was make the cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving. It’s sugar in a pot with berries. That’s it. There’s nothing to it. You just stand there and stir. But staring down at those glossy red berries has become a major inspiration in my artistic life. I’ve never met anybody else who feels this way about cranberry sauce. The roundness, the fullness, that sort of abundance of cranberry sauce became a part of me and my voice, the richness of color, all that stuff. It’s really understanding yourself, all the little moments are attached to you and become part of your personality, your worldview, and then become ideas that you are compelled to include in your art.

Taking the artist’s voice just a little bit further, does it matter whether you pre-plan your design or if you kind of work organically, on the fly? I think you referred to this in your book as “action-and-response.”

Yes, action-and-response. So, action-and-response is a process of working, in which you put some things together, look at it, and ask, Does this work? Or does this not work? Then you move some things around, and I do the same thing again. This is the method that many of our instructors use. Why? Because they’ve had 30+ years of experience making things, and they know how to make quick assessments! For a novice, it may not be the best method, because you don’t yet have the ability to separate your creative self from your critical self. And that’s what the teacher is doing. They’re using a type of shorthand. They’re looking at a thing and making a quick, critical decision about what needs to happen to make the design better. Most people, early on, need to design, design, and re-design, and then choose the best one and make that one. It’s always better to make adjustments to a drawing or mock-up design before investing time and precious materials. Your instructor has a wealth of experience which helps him/her to make quick adjustments.

Because what they’re doing is benchmarking off of previous pieces they have done?

Yes.

And students don’t have that foundation of work to draw from, correct?

Exactly right. I make that a big deal when I’m teaching design. You can’t short-cut experience. You have to do the work and build that level of expertise.

Which brings us to the inspiration for expressing your voice. There are different kinds of inspiration. And specifically, you talk about micro and macro. What’s the difference? And maybe you can give us some examples.

There are two kinds of inspiration: Internal or external. Artists usually are a bit of both, but are predominantly in one camp or the other. So, are you the kind of person who is inspired by what you see and experience, or by what happens inside of you?

Most artists are highly attuned to the visual world and are externally inspired. The greatest percentage of artists are inspired by nature. It could also be culture, architecture, the performing arts, any number of things. “Macro” refers specifically to people who are externally inspired. As you begin to study your inspirations, ask yourself, are you drawn to the micro or the macro? Are you interested in trees, or chlorophyll? Is it the elephant or the cracks in his hide that compels you? Is it the big picture or something very small which attracts your attention? That’s micro vs macro.

With regard to finding your own language, is that something that you develop on your own internally, or do you find somebody to coach you and say, You’re headed in the right direction? or You’re way off base here? How does that work?

I believe Art is a self-directed journey. I believe that what separates artists from hobbyists — not that there’s anything wrong with either one, but there are people who are good makers but not necessarily artists. There are people who are great artists who are not very good makers. The difference is this self-directed thing, i.e., I want to do “X,” and how I’m going to do it like this. The artist is constantly asking themselves questions about what interests them and why, always trying to express a particular thought, feeling, or question. Other people, maybe not so much. But you can learn this. You can learn to be this way. You just have to have the desire to do it.

And a master to teach you?

Well, okay, maybe not “teach,” but they can ask you the right questions. Because creative problem-solving is a different way of thinking. “What would happen if?” is the most important question an artist ever asks themselves. What if I did this? What would happen? I get excited. The hair stands up on the back of my head just thinking about it. What would happen? It’s that point of view. It’s that type of attitude that creates art. What would happen if I tried “this”?

Speaking of inspiration and your use of color, are you consciously aware of the psychological effects of color?

When it comes to color psychology, what I try to do is create a mood, a feeling, a sense of place and time with my color. But I believe that the more personal you make your art, the more it resonates with you, then the more universal it will be. You will reach more people. More people will respond to and relate to your work. I have only my own experience as a working artist to make that claim. But it is how I experience and respond to other people’s art. Art is a nonverbal form of communication; It’s a visual language, like music is an auditory language. Just like music, you respond to the feelings the music brings out. It makes you happy, wistful, even angry. Art does the same thing visually that music does through sound.

Is inspiration the most important component in the design process for making better art?

I think there are two essential parts of the whole design process. The first is inspiration. You must have something to say in order to create a good piece of art. What we do is not mechanical. You’re not making widgets. You’re creating art. And art is “inspired.” You could be inspired by something very small, the wisp of an idea or feeling, or your inspiration could be something very large, like cultural or environmental crises. But you must have that motivation, which is what inspiration is. Inspiration compels you to make something.

The second, and maybe most important, concept is critique. Analyzing what you’ve done and learning from it is how we grow and get better. We have all had the experience of making something beautiful, and then this is what happens: We say, “Look at what I just made. Isn’t it beautiful?” Everyone replies, “Oh, yes, it’s beautiful.” And then you put that object aside and never think about it again. Take time to analyze and assess the piece. Why do you think it’s beautiful? What is it about this piece that works particularly well? Is there any way I can make it even better? Are there parts of it that I want to use in the next piece? Can it morph into something even better? Is this an idea I can take down the road with me? Or shall I move on? Critical analysis is how we learn. Critique is how we get better and make more personal work.

We hear a lot of talk about principles of design, elements of design. What’s the difference between principles and elements?

So, I liken it to building a house. The elements of design are the materials: the stone, wood, glass, paint, and plaster that you can use to build a house. But what kind of a house are you going to build? You can build a classic Victorian or a simple shed. The principles of design are how you put the things together, how you organize the parts.

The principles of design are the big picture items: Unity, movement, and balance, for example. They are organizing principles; they establish how you will put the design together. This is the information you can easily learn. There are rules, hard and fast truths which you can easily master. The rest of it, the important stuff, is the part that takes work, the inspiration and the critique.

The elements and the principles of design are good, standard concepts. Once you know them, you won’t forget them. You won’t forget that a diagonal line has more energy and power than a horizontal one or that geometric shapes are more constrained than organic ones. It’s that kind of information. It’s good, solid, factual information, without question. It’s just what it is.

So obviously, there’s a lot more involved than just making something pretty, right? There’s just so much knowledge to be learned, which is why you have written a book. What’s the name of your book?

The book is called Mastering Contemporary Jewelry Design, by Loretta Lam.

I have read your book and was especially impressed with the photos illustrating various design principles. I understand you also have a website, and you offer classes as well?

Yes, I do. It’s www.lorettalam.com, and you can follow me on Facebook and Instagram. I have a series of jewelry design classes via Zoom. It’s serious education. It is a six-month commitment, one weekend each month. It is laid out like the book. Inspiration, principles, and elements of design, and ending up with critique and finding your voice. Each weekend is an intensive design experience, with lecture, slideshow, exercises, and Q&A. It is for the person who is serious about raising their game and making better art. That’s kind of my tagline, “Make better art.” That’s what I want to help people to do. I work with students individually to bring their ideas to light. It’s not about doing what I want you to do or doing things like me. It’s about getting you further along your own path, because I believe that each one of us has our own artistic journey. We’re all at different places. We all have different destinations in mind. But I can help you to get you further along that path. So that’s what my classes focus on, the individual artist.

I also work with people one-on-one as a coach. As you brought up in the beginning, if you feel you need a coach, then I’m here to help. And of course, when invited, I will teach at your location or speak to your group. I’m always out there trying to spread the word about people making more personal and better art.

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us and sharing some inspiring insights on jewelry design concepts. Are there any other closing comments before we end our interview?

I always say to my students that you are brilliant people who have lived a lifetime rich in experience and carry with you all of this knowledge which you have knitted into your life. Use it. Use all of it, the knowledge, insight, experiences, thoughts, and feelings, your interests, and things you are curious about. Use all that you have to make your best and most personal work. Because it really is your artistic journey, and you want to make your art, not anybody else’s.

 Author: Cindy Faulk, Editors: Loretta Hackman, Brandy Boyd