Golden Girl makes custom jewelry

Alexis Rice Lydecker "was always the frustrated artist," she said. Like so many of us, she knew she had artistic talent but, especially when she was younger, she didn't have the confidence to believe that art could become a career for her. Still, for years, it remained a passion.

Lydecker is a fourth-generation Marin County resident, who grew up on the lagoon in Belvedere. After attending Marin Country Day School and Dominican Upper School, which was then in San Rafael, she graduated from University of Denver with a degree in Elementary Education and a minor in Art. 

Throughout her life she was always interested in design, texture, and color. She studied how these elements relate to the environment and absorbed what she observed around her. Lydecker experimented with several different mediums, including sculpting, and drawing. For a long time, photography was her art, but only as a hobby.  

At 50, Lydecker  was ready to do something for herself, to pursue the artistic talent she became convinced she did possess and could possibly turn into a business.    

She decided to attend jewelry school - Revere Academy in San Francisco - to learn how to do what is known as bench work. Bench jewelry combines all the skills: soldering, set stones, polish to finished stones, and fabrication in platinum, gold, or silver.

Part of her philosophy then and now is that she wanted to make beautiful things for the people she loves, which they could enjoy and purchase at reasonable prices. She is gratified by the design aspect of her projects and creates what she calls wearable art.

Through trial and error she has settled on a great production team in San Francisco. Randy Harris, of Mel Harris Inc., is her production manager. He takes the design from beginning to end, carving the wax, making the mold, casting the piece and doing the final polishing. Setter Razmig Kalayji does all kinds of settings from bead, to prong, to flush, to pave. She also likes the importance of visual movement on pieces and prefers that everything be done in the old school ways.  A man named Hratch does all of her engraving by hand, which she feels is more beautiful than anything done by machine. 

Though her work can be purchased in several stores, including Partita  on Chesnut Street in San Francisco, Pearl in Larkspur, Hutton's on the island of Maui and Blanc in San Anselmo, Lydecker enjoys dealing with individual clients and making pieces to order. She gets a great deal of pleasure from meeting one on one and designing individually for a client. From start to finish, a custom design typically takes three weeks.

When the economy fell Lydecker realized that all the beadwork she had become known for, in precious and semi precious stones, was too expensive for many people to justify spending money on during hard times.

She began asking customers if they had any old gold and started melting it down.  That way, she says, the client keeps the sentiment of the piece and she can make one of her designs out of  a client's gold jewelry which they might not have worn in 25 years. It's a wonderful bargain and a win-win for everybody.   

Lydecker is always inspired by nature and what she sees around her.  When a friend wanted her to make something special and offered a raw green diamond, wondering what she might be able to do with it. So, she walked in her garden to think about it. 

She returned and said, "Let's make you a heart chakra piece to protect your heart." And they did. 

First, she made a mold of a rock she found and cast it in pure platinum, then she put the diamond in it, and hung the piece on a long platinum chain so the pendant hit her client right over the heart. They were both very happy with the end product.

Recently, she started an organic jewelry line. In one piece, Lydecker took a mold of a pebble from the garden and from there she made gold drop earrings, in the shape of a piece of gravel only in solid gold, and then flush set the earrings with small diamonds.   

She is still searching for the perfect stone to do a matching bracelet. She has had a lot of help with that from her grandsons. Alex ate the stones, Wyatt throws them, and she began collecting them. Wyatt, at 2 years old,  also enjoys sitting with her when she works on the bench. He's "going to work" too.

Lydecker works with 18 to 22 karat gold and precious and semi-precious stones, depending on what the customer wants. Lydecker also hand ties precious or semi-precious stonesm including beautiful diamonds (moss green, gray green, black) with 18 carat gold.   

Her prices are extremely reasonable and depend, of course, on the type of gold and stones. Everything - rings, bracelets, pendants, and earrings - range between $295 and $3,000. 

If she is able to start with your own gold, she can do better. Lydecker adds a fabrication and design fee if you go in that direction.

So, check your dresser drawers and jewelry boxes. You just might have some old gold Lydecker is happy to recycle and give you a whole new piece of wearable art. Think of it as recycling.

Recycling your gold is a great way to have a new piece of custom-designed jewelry at a very reasonable price. It's good for you, good for Lydecker, and good for the planet.