Leetie Lovendale. The Harvest that Started It all.
As owner of a bead store that focused on vintage beads & components, Heather DeSimone was contacted by a gentleman in Rhode Island, who had managed a manufacturing company that created lucite parts for famous jewelry designers back between the 1960's and the early 1980's. When the stock was moved to Maine, 1/2 of the harvest was beautifully carved and tumbled, vintage lucite beads. However there were boxes and crates and palettes of these other mysterious parts: hoops that resembled macaroni in large dirty bags, flat backed cabochons, and other random plastic pieces with no holes.
Upon doing some research, Heather, along with the help of her husband Chris, began to experiment at replicating the machines that were used to hand-set lucite and plastic parts back in this era. The ability to finish off simple hoops, but also sculpt with various parts and create astounding textures became a fascination.
Leetie Lovendale was born of leftovers. The 20,000 lbs of colorful and beautiful, set seemingly useless (at the time) parts.
If you want your jewelry to have a story, be sustainable, bold and beautiful, you've just found Leetie Lovendale.
