Greenwood Women Brings Her Craft Uptown

July 10, 2008

By JAMIE MADEWELL
Index-Journal Staff Writer

Greenwood, SC - A local artist is bringing “Jewelry Uniquely Yours” to a unique Greenwood location.

Lynn Svensson is one of the 12 artists who have signed on for space at The Meridian, a collection of studios and shops at 140 Maxwell Ave., now operating on a “soft opening” and slated for grand opening in October. “I used to play shop when I was a little child and that never went anywhere. I just happened to hear that Jon (Holloway) was renovating this building and was going to put in artist shops, so I decided this was my chance,” she said. “This little artist studio provided me a wonderful opportunity.”

Lynn Svensson takes a break from jewelry design in her studio in The Meridian, 140 Maxwell Ave. A veteran jewelcrafter, Svensson is one of the first artists to open her shop in the building, which will eventually house 12 artist studios. (Staff photo by Jennifer Colton)

Svensson has been making jewelry for about 20 years, and the shop will act as a working studio for Svensson so visitors can watch her bending wire and crafting clasps, she said, adding she creates her jewelry one at a time.

“I just take one piece, look at it and see what it inspires me to do. I can spend eight hours working on one design just to get it right,” she said. “I shop a lot wherever I am for unusual pieces to incorporate.

“I put humor in my pieces here and there, and I usually name each piece. I had a pair of antique earrings and I put one as the pendant in a necklace and called it 'Where’s My Other Earring,’” she said. “The gallery in Hilton Head tells me people will go through just reading the names, and then they’ll have to buy the piece because they like the name.”

In addition to Jasper Gallery in Hilton Head, Svensson is represented at The Moorings in Islamorada, Fla., and at Taylor Galleries and the gift shop at the Arts Council. She has had exhibits at The Ariel Gallery in New York, The Mann Gallery in Reading, Penn., and at Main Street Arts in Birdsboro, Penn.

Svensson also does portrait work and faux finishing as hobbies, in addition to experience sculpting and working with watercolors and oils.

“Like most artists, I’ll tackle anything -- except basket-making,” she said. “I took a class (on basket-making) and by the end of the day, everyone had these wonderful baskets and some people were starting on a second. I had a two-inch coaster-sized basket, so I know my limitations: basket-making.”

In her jewelry, Svensson said she likes big, bold, fun and unusual pieces, pointing out necklaces that use anything from fabric drapery tiebacks to tiny glass bottles.

“There’s nothing that’s safe -- it may end up in a necklace,” she said. “My pieces are all unique and I want them to have a story.”

One series of earrings -- the Antiquities Collection -- even serve as tributes to art from classic civilizations such as the ancient Egyptians or the Cypriot Greeks.

“Each one in this collection is special and talks about the period in history that it comes from,” she said. “I have as much fun exhibiting this work as I do making it. I have a lot of fun putting everything together.”

And it isn’t just past civilizations that benefit from Svensson’s hand. Modern Hollywood has given Svensson’s work a reputation of its own thanks to her daughter, Elaine Irwin-Mellencamp, who has worn pieces in modeling shoots for Almay.

“Elaine and John Mellencamp like to give my work as gifts, so I work designing a lot of unique pieces for them,” Svensson said.

Always an artist, Svensson turned to jewelry through other projects.

“When I was doing big pieces with homemade paper, I started making faces with clay, and I thought if I could incorporate the paper into the clay, it would be lighter and easier to wear,” she said. “Finally I was able to come up with a clay-like substance made out of paper that I could make look like river stones.

“With the paper-clay, I decided I needed to learn a little bit more about jewelry making to do necklaces.”

The project led Svensson to clasp crafting and silver smithing and then into bead work and detailed design.

“I started getting more and more into jewelry and left the paper-clay behind,” she said. “Now I have a room at home with three of the four walls are drawers of beads.”

Svensson and her husband, Bing, moved to Lake Greenwood three years ago.

“We were tired of living on the ocean,” Bing Svensson said. “We’re both retired, so we decided to move to a lake, and this was the one.”

The studio/shop will be open from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Thursday and Friday and from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Saturday, as well as during special events.