Lisa and Dan Soltis talk about their creative creations
A painter and a sculptor during the day, at night this husband-and-wife design duo – Lisa and Dan Soltis – cook up fascinating, one-of-a-kind jewelry. The brand, aptly named LAS Jewelry after Lisa, is a collaborative effort between the creatively driven couple.
Her prints and paintings have been used in textiles for brands such as Volcom, Billabong and Hurley, and Dan has sculpted sets for major motion pictures. With such thriving careers, Lisa and Dan attest that you can’t separate everything you love.
“I find that as an artist, it’s difficult to separate all the different mediums,” Lisa said. “I think being a mature artist is being one who can make the transition into these different worlds gracefully, still keeping a cohesive style throughout.”
Dan agreed: “I’ve always loved exploring new processes and materials. Jewelry was just another avenue to explore.”
Their line could be divided up into mini collections, featuring their rings – which have a tough, punky and hip vibe – along with fabric necklaces and metal jewelry.
All their pieces show a fascination with nature, whether it be a flower or the skull of an animal. Their metal and fabric necklaces boast oversized flowers with exaggerated petals in bright hues of pink, teal and yellow on chunky, overlapping chains.
Their fabric necklaces, mostly sculpted from leather with funky hardware embellishment, show a fantastic attention to detail and display their ability to constantly surprise their shoppers, with no one piece alike.
The ring collection provides the biggest juxtaposition to their necklaces because it trades floral feminity for longhorn skulls and wolf heads.
“You don’t have to be a ‘tough guy’ to wear one of our skulls,” Dan said. “We feel that the appeal is more than on one level. It’s more about the fascination of animals and the antiquated look of the piece.”
How do they manage to keep so many lines cohesive under one brand?
“We both feel that being constantly mindful of the graceful transition from one collection to the next is a great way to stay cohesive (and) to never lose our identity for the sake of a fashion trend,” Lisa said.
Although the couple tried to stay mum on their current line, Lisa slipped a clue to her clients.
“We’re keeping the pieces in production now pretty secret ... as they are not finished,” she said. “But we can say we’re staying with the theme of environments and creatures.”
That sounds as if they’re playing it straight, but Dan’s answer revealed that even though the inspiration might be derived from the same place, the designs could be very different.
“It’s a bit of a new direction and definitely fun for me to explore in the sculpting sense,” he said about the current line in the works.
Either way, their new line is sure to offer up their lively and rebellious jewelry, which manages to be sweet and sour, hard and soft – all at the same time.
Tagged in: lux exclusives, jewelry, leather, fabric necklaces, skulls,
Purple Neon/LadyLUX
