Louisville Magazine

FEB 2015

Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.

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78 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 2.15 style fashion Pliers, scissors and clamps hang inside W.G. Rickel's backyard studio on Payne Street. Tiny sculptures near a window resemble retro electricity experiments. An industrial light illuminates intricate wood-and- copper earrings. Rickel likes old technology: antiquated circuits, "the mid-century vacuum era." He started making jewelry to learn more about small-scale assemblage and part-making. "I grew up liking science," says Rickel, whose frst name is inspired by initialed men like H.G. Wells and M.C. Escher. "I remember being in kindergarten and not wanting to learn the days of the week. My mom said, 'If you want to be a scientist, you need to know this.'" He studied biology for a year in college before jumping into the arts, with a focus on glass and cast metals. "I knew I was a little too out of my gourd to play well in the science world, so art made sense for me," he says. "You take what you like, and you turn it into other things." Like earrings. "I didn't intentionally decide that I was going to start making jewelry," he says. "I just had designs pop into my head." Rickel hand-makes all of the parts, including the clasps, and sells his jewelry ($15 to $65) on Etsy, at the CRAFT(s) Gallery on South Fourth Street and at the Flea Off Market. W.G. Rickel "My girlfriend is the biggest collec- tor. For a long time, I wasn't doing this seriously. I'd make things here and there and think about selling them, but then she'd commandeer them. She has a whole collection of early tests. She gets the ones I don't want to say goodbye to, and then I get to enjoy them too." MULTIFACETED Story and photos by Amber Garvey Meet three distinctive local jewlery makers. "As a musician, the tension of strings has always intrigued me — seeing them between two points and how they can resonate."

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