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Piece of the Week: Lizzie Mandler’s ‘Liquid Gold’ Hoops
Inspired by a 19th century sculpture, Mandler transformed gold into liquid for these earrings.
Lizzie Mandler’s earrings turn 18-karat yellow gold into liquid.
After visiting London and spending time admiring “Lot’s Wife,” a marble sculpture created by Sir Hamo Thornycroft in the 1800s, Mandler, the designer of the eponymous brand, was inspired to create her “Liquid Gold” hoops with pavé.
“I was so in awe of how expressive the fabric was, how fluid it felt, in such a concrete material,” said Mandler about the sculpture.
The statue depicts a woman with her head turned to the side, wearing a flowy dress that drapes over her body.
The fabric of the sculpture’s clothing is so thin you can see the outline of the woman’s knee, a feature that stuck out to Mandler as she viewed the sculpture. She noted that the way the marble was carved gave the material so much expression she could feel the gust of wind carrying the fabric.
“I wanted to use gold in the way Thornycroft and many other prolific marble sculptors used marble, making this solid and concrete material morph into something flowy with movement and expression, and then layering in stones to accentuate the curves and wrinkles created,” said Mandler.
Mandler started creating these earrings with clay, sculpting the medium in a way that referenced both the movement in Thornycroft’s statue and the design of her existing “Knife Edge” collection, so the piece took an expressive form while remaining in the constraints of the silhouette.
What resulted was a pair of hoops made of 18-karat yellow gold with approximately 1.07 carats of pavé diamonds that run down the curve of the earrings.
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After visiting London and spending time admiring “Lot’s Wife,” a marble sculpture created by Sir Hamo Thornycroft in the 1800s, Mandler, the designer of the eponymous brand, was inspired to create her “Liquid Gold” hoops with pavé.
“I was so in awe of how expressive the fabric was, how fluid it felt, in such a concrete material,” said Mandler about the sculpture.
The statue depicts a woman with her head turned to the side, wearing a flowy dress that drapes over her body.
The fabric of the sculpture’s clothing is so thin you can see the outline of the woman’s knee, a feature that stuck out to Mandler as she viewed the sculpture. She noted that the way the marble was carved gave the material so much expression she could feel the gust of wind carrying the fabric.
“Lot’s Wife” by Hamo Thornycroft, sculpted from marble in 1878 (Photo courtesy of Lizzie Mandler)
“I wanted to use gold in the way Thornycroft and many other prolific marble sculptors used marble, making this solid and concrete material morph into something flowy with movement and expression, and then layering in stones to accentuate the curves and wrinkles created,” said Mandler.
Mandler started creating these earrings with clay, sculpting the medium in a way that referenced both the movement in Thornycroft’s statue and the design of her existing “Knife Edge” collection, so the piece took an expressive form while remaining in the constraints of the silhouette.
What resulted was a pair of hoops made of 18-karat yellow gold with approximately 1.07 carats of pavé diamonds that run down the curve of the earrings.
The Liquid Gold earrings are part of Mandler’s “Liquid Gold” collection, which debuted at Couture in May.
There are 13 pieces in the collection which ranges from $2,600 to $40,000.
The hoops are also available in 18-karat white and rose gold, retailing for $8,730. They also come in a non-pavé version.
The large Liquid Gold hoops with pavé are available for purchase on Lizzie Mandler’s website.
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