Customer Reviews

Robert Lee Morris: The Power of Jewelry

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Women have been adorning themselves with jewelry and body art almost since time began. What earlier generations did not have was the imagination of award winning designer Robert Lee Morris whose bold, dramatic creations in gold and silver are worn by the famous, such as Madonna, Oprah, Cher, as well as the lady next door.

The son of an air force pilot and a former fashion model, Morris was exposed at any early age to differing cultures. A four year stint in Japan left him with lasting memories of the beauty and customs of that country. Undoubtedly, this experience and others have been an inspiration to him.

"I had a very powerful vision in my head when I first began to make jewelry," he writes. "It was this specific, cinematic image that grounded me and gave me a sound place from which all my work sprang in the early years, from 1970 to 1980. I could envision a post-apocalyptic world populated by Amazon women....."

A major jump start for his career occurred when he was chosen to design the jewelry for Donna Karan's collections. Ms. Karan, an unabashed fan, wrote the foreword for this volume. "Robert's designs are remarkably sensual, They beg to be touched. When you hold or wear them they become part of you....."

Evidently Calvin Klein and Karl Lagerfeld shared her enthusiasm for Morris also did collections for both of them.

Morris's designs have been among the most wanted and noted for over 25 years, and he claimed the Platinum Guild International Grand Prize for Design Award in 1999. He continues to offer collections in his signature style of ethnic flavor and high fashion flair.

Enjoy and wish as you leaf through this lush 180 page volume with 230 full-color illustrations. With his candid, chatty narrative Morris proves himself to be a gifted communicator as well as designer.

- Gail Cooke

In a world of cookie cutter jewelry where factories manufacture the latest trendy piece, thank goodness there is Robert Lee Morris. RLM is a very spiritual designer who is attuned to nature, human sensuality and an unending stream of creativity. I have never been to his studio in Soho, NYC. But I do buy his stunning silver jewelry on QVC. Whenever he is on tv, he presents pieces that are not only unique in design, but pieces that beg to be touched. His pieces are filled with spirit and love. For example, he created a twisted heart bracelet where the hearts literally flow into one another, rather than connecting them with the usual chunky links. He created a large molded heart ring that has FORGIVE inscribed on the inside. He takes the ordinary and makes it extraordinary.

I encourage those who are not familiar with his pieces to try a pair of his exquisite earrings. I also encourage all current and future jewelry designers to study this book and his pieces. Here is one of the most innovative and prolific designers of our time. Study his book, go to his Soho studio, and check out the shopping site that sells his jewelry. You will be glad you did.

One more thing. RLM's book is not just a history of his jewelry and how it was made and sold over the past forty years. This book is a history of fashion, makeup and accessories and how they were designed and sold via the runway over the past four decades. This is a fascinating history of some of our most famous designers and the marriage of fashion and accessories.

This book is more that the best expected. I am familiar with The RLM jewelry line and know this artist to be innovative and creative. This book gives an fascinating look at the man as a sculptor and jewelry designer.

I walked up the steps to my door yesterday and found a large, flat box waiting for me. Inside was Robert Lee Morris's "The Power of Jewelry." I hadn't been expecting this for a few weeks, as Amazon had said it was the one book out of four I had ordered that would be backordered. `Darn, I had thought. That's the one I just couldn't wait to read.'

I'm nothing if not impetuous, not so much in my day to day, get things done, life, but in my hobby du jour. And for the past several years that hobby has been jewelry making, whether it be metals or mixed media including fabric and paper. I get a notion that I want to learn more about something, and I have to have it, Now.

So it was like a special little gift, this book. And when I began reading it, I realized just how much of a gift it was. Let me explain about the, for lack of a better term, cognitive dissonance, I've been engaged in over the past few years. As I take classes and talk to people and read about jewelry making, I hear over and over that the best designs are planned and sketched and basically plotted out before you put hammer to metal.

Well, I don't like to do it that way.

It's not that I can't. Even though I'm an okay sketcher and I can plan a design, I get itchy to put my fingers on the metal, grab the hammer and start pounding or soldering. And as I read this book, I realized that that's what RLM likes to do too.

His drawings and paintings are spectacular, but he doesn't describe his exploration with metals as being planned out. Here is his description of his attempts to emulate the look and feeling of Cycladic figures that had moved him "so powerfully" in the Met shortly after he moved to New York City at age 25:

"I began by making a ring with wire, which I soldered to flat sheet metal. Then I trimmed the sheet to the ring, thereby creating a blank disc with a nice thick edge. I placed the blank onto a base of sandbags that sat on a tree trunk to absorb the shock, and then hammered directly into the middle of the disc with a round steel dapping punch. The results were sheer magic! What happened was that the center of the disk bulged outward, stretching the metal in between the center and the soldered edge to create a concave surface. Following this, I laid the disc over a rounded arm of my anvil and bent it slightly into a curve. The result was that the entire piece suddenly seemed to have taken on a new level of life and energy; it looked like a living creature of some kind. I was reminded of what pizza dough might look like when it was made into a flat pie shape and tossed into the air, curving and floating like a piece of cloth. I had just created my first totally original and unique design, one that would become the foundation for my classic core collection that continues to sell today, thirty years later."

And he definitely hadn't sketched it. Well. If it's good enough for RLM, then -- Hey.

"The Power of Jewelry" isn't a how-to-make-jewelry book, even though any metalsmith could glean great tips, such as the one above on how to approach the design process. It's essence is a picture book with well-written text.

The biographical portion describes RLM's childhood as an Air Force brat who lived in Japan and Brazil and soaked up the visual and cultural offerings of his early environments. You realize that, in addition to having a deep intellect and creative disposition, RLM was born at a time and lived in parts of the world that bring to mind Malcolm Gladwell's thesis in his book, "[...] In it, Gladwell offers several examples of spectacularly successful people who are "products of history and community, of opportunity and legacy." All of these, Gladwell states, are critical to making these people the cultural stars they have become.

Morris's transition from youth to adulthood reflects American cultural norms and expectations as they metamorphosed from the 1950s to the 60s. He entered college as a pre-med student but left as an artist and filmmaker. After college he and his friends formed a small commune in Wisconsin, where each member chose a craft to develop as a livelihood. His was handmade metal jewelry. He then moved to Vermont, the center of the back to the land movement of the 70s and the birthplace of several well known craft fairs. After the owner of the New York art jewelry gallery Sculpture to Wear discovered him at one and told him to move to the City, he entered a social circle that included Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Keith Haring and Tama Janowitz. It was a time when collaborations between fashion designers and jewelers was just beginning, and he was right there in the midst of it.

RLM is indeed a fascinating person, and his creations are iconic. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in late 20th Century fashion, art culture, wearable art or - my interest - jewelry making.

[...]

This book is more about Robert Lee Morris than his jewelry. It contains more images of RLM than his jewelry. I returned the book.

I read the book and enjoyed all the photos from cover to cover!

Robert Lee Morris is such a great natural designer, very genuine as human being.

I found many similarities with his life and mine as a jewelry designer.

I discovered that my first pieces were much like his style, when I didn't knew who he was and never saw his work before.

Totally inspiring. You can be tempted to tear and frame the photos of the book as art pictures!

Benjamin P.

Puerto Rico

This book was a Valentine's Day present for my wife. She absolutely loved it. The shipping, service and follow-up from the seller was superb. I would definitely buy from this seller again without hesitation.Robert Lee Morris: The Power of Jewelry