Creative Industry

Since 2007, Lily Wikoff has sold thousands of pieces of ceramic jewelry, set up wholesale accounts with more than 60 stores nationwide, had a necklace picked up by Acacia’s online catalog, and turned down an invitation to provide clay birdhouses to Urban Outfitters’ Terrain (she was too busy) – all before she turned 30. At the core of the industrious jewelry designer’s creations are brightly hued ceramic circles, squares, ovals, and rectangles hand-stamped with patterns ranging from  free-flowing to geometric.

The petite ceramics adorn earrings, necklaces, rings, and leather cuffs, which she creates in her Greenville, South Carolina, studio, along with ornaments and metal bracelets.

“Rings are the most popular, I think because they’re so bright,” says Wikoff, 29, pointing to a distressed-chic tabletop awash in color from dozens of wide-band sterling-plated designs topped with her ceramic “stones.” “People are especially loving these new cocktail rings,” she adds, holding up a large, shiny burnt-orange specimen.

The rest of this story will be available next month, but why wait? You can read it now by subscribing to our digital edition. Your purchase helps promote the American Craft Council's nonprofit mission to support artists.