PHOTOGRAPHY THIS PAGE : COURTESY OF LAZULI HANDCRAFTED ; ILLUSTRATION LEFT : GETTY IMAGES / MS POINT .
THE NEWPORT-BASED JEWELRY BRAND INVOLVES RINGS , EARRINGS AND NECKLACES MADE THROUGH ELECTROFORMING . BY MALIA ERICKSON
Lazuli Handcrafted is a Newportbased jewelry brand developed by artist Erika Young , a self-taught jewelry designer with a background in geology . Her rings , earrings and necklaces are made through electroforming , a chemical process that gives pieces a natural , organic look .
Over the years , Young ’ s life has led her to Delaware , across the globe to New Zealand , and back home to Rhode Island , this time in Newport . She studied geology , minored in
French and worked on boats doing underwater mapping for a geophysical surveying contractor that worked with the United States Environmental Protection Agency . When she was laid off in 2016 , Young devoted herself to jewelry-making and it became her full-time gig .
“ I never went to art school . I never went to business school ,” Young says . “ I ’ m learning this all as I go . Nothing teaches you like experience .” Her degree in science makes her a confident experimenter and she finds support in the Rhode Island jewelry community . “ Coming into [ jewelry ], I got such a sense of validation and real community .”
In her previous job , she encountered the subtle sexism that some women in the STEM field face . “ Every time I was on a job , I always had in the back of my mind that someone was assuming I wasn ’ t qualified to be there ,” she says . She welcomes the freedom of creative work and independent employment , although being completely self-reliant comes with its own stressors , like holding herself accountable to her work .
While jewelry was not the main part of her life until five years ago , Young ’ s always been a crafter . A true ’ 90s child , she fondly remembers making keychain lizards out of plastic pony beads and weaving hemp bracelets . She would sell her crafts at family yard sales and take custom orders for the holidays . Now , she ’ s electroforming amethyst crystals and gingko leaves . Her whimsical butterfly collection is a nod to her childhood crafting days . “ It ’ s the grown-up version of something my twelve-year-old self would have wanted .”
She creates rings , earrings and necklaces using electroforming , a process of metal forming where parts are produced through electrodeposition on a model . “ This gives pieces a really cool , organic texture and it looks like you just dug it out of the ground ,” she says , pulling a “ chandelier ” of rings out from their blue , murky bath .
The first few batches were each made with individual leaves , each piece cast from a hand-picked leaf . However , as her business grew and the process became too time-consuming , a jewelry-making friend encouraged Young to have a local caster make a mold of a perfect gingko leaf .
Now , she takes the cast and plated leaves and welds a gold-filled ear wire extension onto the leaf ’ s stem . “ I wanted people to thread the leaf stem through their ear ,” she says .
Young is also working with pearls and hopes to have more floral influences in her upcoming collections as well . She finds inspiration in natural color palettes and in Rhode Island ’ s rugged beauty . 2022 is looking up for Lazuli as the company starts another chapter in its new studio , located on Deblois Street in Newport .
Catch Young at the Bloom Flower and Home Market on April 2 and 3 at the WaterFire Arts Center , the Wickenden Makers and Merchants events in April and October , and Newport festivals this summer . Her jewelry can also be found on etsy . com / shop / lazulihandcrafted .
RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l APRIL 2022 65