Jewelry designer refashions heirlooms

Imagine the contents of your grandmother's jewelry box spilled out, restrung in playful combinations -- and resurfacing in runway shows and exclusive boutiques, and on the necks and arms of Cate Blanchett and Ashley Judd, environmentalist Majora Carter, even the Seattle punk band Blood Brothers.

That pretty much traces the career of Lisa Salzer, the New York designer who founded the Lulu Frost jewelry line after graduating from Dartmouth three years ago. Salzer, who studied art history and studio art, takes vintage pieces and resurrects them, using charms, stones and pieces of chain from older jewelry, and sometimes combining them with more unusual objects . Her pieces include watches without hands, the metal tags from crystal bar sets, hinges from old doors, vintage keys and -- most famously -- room numbers from old hotels.

"I bought all the room numbers," said Salzer of the Plaza Hotel's 1907 bronze fixtures. She used them as pendants, hanging from whimsical vintage chains, in her spring 2006 collection. They caused a sensation and sold out quickly. (Salzer makes replicas, available for $300, at www.lulufrost.com.)

She went on to collaborate with designers, such as Alexander Wang, creating earrings made of fluorescent plastic disks and vintage brass chains for his fall '07 collection, and Chris Benz, collaborating on his spring '08 show.

Among her inspirations are Alber Elbaz of Lanvin and Consuelo Castiglione of Marni -- but no one more than her own grandmother, Elizabeth Frost.

"I like to combine decades," said Salzer, 24, of her vision for her designs, as well as the company she named for her grandmother, who was an estate jewelry buyer. "It's like collage."

No surprise then that Salzer says some of her most satisfying work is when she is commissioned to create custom pieces out of family heirlooms.

"People will go through their drawers and bring me things, from their heirlooms to a lost earring," she said. "I get an insight into someone's family history."

Salzer now mostly sources her pieces from dealers and estate sales, but she started in flea markets and still routinely canvasses them for treasures. She's quick to point out that if you don't have an old box of heirlooms, you can use costume jewelry, metal chains, trinkets found in yard sales, even hardware stores.

"And they make the greatest gifts," Salzer points out.

A few lengths of vintage chain, a solitary earring, a brooch from a different era, a mysterious brass key: You have everything you need to reinvent an heirloom from a past generation.
Source: redding