North by Northwest

For more than four decades, Laurie Hall has been making stories the subject of her work. Her playful and funny jewelry beset with found objects is about the places she lives and the landscapes that fill her imagination, about her family history and different ideas of what it is to be an American. As a jeweler, Hall never plays it safe, preferring to fly by the seat of her pants and push her skills and technical knowledge. She amuses herself and, in the process, amuses the wearer and viewer. She is a product of the jewelry histories that make the Pacific Northwest unique within the larger story of American contemporary jewelry. Featuring fifty-eight images of Hall’s jewelry spanning the period from 1974 to 2019, this book explores why she is an important maker whose practice deserves to be more widely known. This is the story of Laurie Hall’s jewelry.