My Neighborhood – Lisa Levine Jewelry

The neighborhood where I live in Williamsburg, Brooklyn has a really high concentration of crafty people and shops. I started visiting these people so I can share their stories and work with the readers of the Craft blog. Last week was Wendy Yang of Maiden Hong Kong. This week… I talked to Lisa Levine from Lisa Levine Jewelry.
Lisa Levine (rhymes with wine) makes really beautiful dangle earrings. She has been making jewelry for a long time. She made her first jewelry in the 4th grade for a church bazaar. She and a friend made friendship bracelets and earned $60. Later, she got her first job at a bead store. For college, Lisa got her BFA in painting and sculpture at California College of Art. After she finished school, she started making earrings and taking them around to stores to get orders. In 2006, she opened her jewelry store on Metropolitan Ave in Williamsburg.
Everything in Lisa’s store is handmade in the back of the store. She draws her inspiration from materials and lets the design evolve out of that constraint. She also uses a lot of found objects and chains.
Lisa Levine Jewelry
536 Metropolitan Ave
Brooklyn, NY
lisalevinejewelry.com
• See all my Flickr photos at Lisa Levine Jewelry – Link.
• Lisa Levine Catch the Sun Jewelry on Cool Hunting – Link
Lisa showed me her studio in the back of the store and walked through the steps to making earrings. Before I could tell her that my ears aren’t pierced, she had made an earring and put it in my ear. Okay my ears are pierced, but I haven’t worn earrings in a really long time. Pictures of Lisa’s steps follow.

Here are the basic steps that Lisa showed me to make earrings.
Supplies

Lisa uses round nose pliers, flat nose pliers, chain wire pliers, chains and files.
Steps

Put the chains on a piece of wire and bend it to hold the chains on.

Shape the top of the wire to go through an ear. File the wire.

Earring!