Lola Brooks / Photography by Tatsuro Nishimura

Late November I had the distinct pleasure to meet jeweler/artist Lola Brooks at a photoshoot for an article in the February/March issue of American Craft magazine (please check out Mimi Luse’s story on Brooks). American Craft can be found at Barnes and Noble and/or at the MAD bookstore.

A visiting assistant professor at the Rhode Island School of Design, Brooks is represented by Sienna Gallery in Lenox, MA, and her work is in the collection of both the Museum of Arts and Design and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Lola creates exquisite jewelry around the subject of romance and the tropes of love. She mixes up her material combining vintage jewelry such as the ivory roses with new gems and metals. Her compositions are layered with this spirit that there are never enough roses, bows and such in her pieces! The work shown here are brooches. However she does makes necklaces, rings etc. You can see more of Lola’s range on Sienna’s site not to mention other noteworthy jewelers.

The photographs are by the very talented Tatsuro Nishimura. I always enjoy collaborating with Tatsuro. It was a memorable afternoon.

Chris Mottalini

The Rock of the Month Club
The genesis for these pictures comes from photographer, Chris Mottalini, subscribing to a mineral club in which he started receiving monthly different rocks from around the world. On his site he says, “I photographed these rocks in various “natural” settings, occasionally introducing foreign elements (packaging materials, etc.) in order to highlight the constructed realism/manipulations of the photographs.”

These exotic minerals are transported from all parts of the globe (like India, Morocco Brazil, etc.) to a new photographic existence in a manipulated natural world.

I’m also a big fan of his “after you left, they took it apart (demolished paul rudolph homes)” series where he photographs a handful of homes by acclaimed architect Paul Rudolph days before they are demolished. The photographs capture the grace of these architectural gems even in the state of abandonment and neglect.