The brains behind the beauty of Lichen & Lychee
One of my best friends is crazy about jewelry. Nuts for it. It's the only gift I ever buy for her. There's a little convenience store next to one of our local watering holes, and my bejeweled friend sets off the alarm every time she goes in to buy a pack of Old Golds which for the longest time she attributed to a "weapon detector" at the front door. Since she doesn't routinely carry a handgun or switchblade it was a little baffling, but it finally it dawned on her. It’s the jewelry.
Another Seattle woman with a strong commitment to the role of jewelry in her life is Shirlee Grund, creator of Lichen & Lychee, a jewelry line she established in February 2010. Since then she’s made the transition from the professional world into full-time artist and most days can be found working out of her home studio on Capitol Hill.
When I visited Grund, she was in the middle of packaging an order for the SAM gift shop, one of the latest in a slew of local stores and galleries where her work can now be found. Lichen & Lychee is reflective of her time spent training as an artist. Aesthetically, it has an element of being process driven, worked and reworked, until she’s satisfied with the end product. As the name suggests, Lichen & Lychee is a nature and botanically inspired line. Grund needs to go no further than her own beautifully gardened back yard or the short walk to the Volunteer Park Conservatory to conjure up ideas for future concepts. A favorite from her current collection is the Fidget Ring with Kinetic Gem Ball. The ring is sterling silver with a bright exterior finish and oxidized interior and the top has off-set silver cups, between which a free spinning gem ball runs. It’s a perfect example of what her work aims to be: Botanically inspired with clean lines and the ability to be both casual and refined.
She's surprised herself recently however, by noticing a fixation with industrial products, taking care to see how those elements are connected and joined, and how it might inform her own style. Her recent interest in a more industrial aesthetic is apparent in some of her current works-in-progress, especially in her experiments with manipulating oxide layers on titanium, reflecting light like oil in a puddle. She would actually eventually like for Lichen & Lychee to evolve into three lines: one that is refined and continues to be nature inspired and organic, one that is urban and experimental and one that is more commercially approachable, responding to current trends.
But all of this seems to be happening so fast. In sixteen short months she's already been published in Marthe Le Van's book 30 Minute Rings as well as the upcoming book 30 Minute Bracelets. Last December, she was awarded 3rd place in Lark Books' Jewelry Design Contest and has also taken the RAW challenge: design a ring a week for an entire year, some of which are for sale on her Etsy site. In addition to the SAM shop, her wares can be found locally at downtown's Fancy and Capitol Hill's Ghost Gallery.
Grund made a ballsy choice to re-enter the art field when she did, but her persistence is obviously paying off. What drove her to make the leap from professional world to self-employed artist in the middle of a recession is that same desire in so many of us: to be in a field that will both challenge and excite and not cause dread at the thought of going to work tomorrow.
So how did she do it? What's the secret? I don't know yet. What I do know is that I feel suddenly unadorned, so I am going to go put on a necklace, a ring, maybe a bangle and see what kind of alarms I can set off.
