Laura Lobdell Jewelry

Profile

Laura Lobdell’s tiny jewelry boutique displays her full line of quirky silver and gold trinkets. The hallway of a shop doesn’t allow for more than a few customers at a time; browsers have to turn sideways, subway-car-style, to scoot past one another. Walls are painted seafoam blue, bouquets of flowers in warm oranges and pinks are scattered about, and the only furnishing is an elaborate zebra-upholstered chair where Lobdell’s Japanese Chin, Xiao, perches. (The pooch also appears on the cover of the book Dog Palaces in a miniature Chinese pagoda hand-painted by Lobdell.) The baubles are artistically displayed in glass cases mounted to the walls, with small printed placards describing each item. Lobdell specializes in turning everyday objects precious, like gold matchstick charms in polished gold matchboxes, matte silver macaroni earrings, enameled cigarette butts, sterling silver peach pits, and a candy necklace strung with copper and silver candies. Charms shaped like flattened beer-bottle caps, guitar picks, and bullets provide fittingly masculine accessories for men, while sterling-silver, sapphire-studded bubble wands and engraved candy talk hearts make popular wedding-party gifts. — Lauren Murrow