When I first encountered Joseph Brooks’ sleek website http://www.josephbrooksjewelry.com, with its slideshow display of his work, I immediately wanted to include it in this blog, so I asked for permission to use a photo of this labradorite necklace with its carved Ganesha pendant. What impressed me about this necklace was more than the fact that I love labradorite and that Ganesha is my favorite Hindu diety, it was how the pendant had been carefully carved to highlight the flash of labradoresence that is the hallmark of this captivating stone.
A Ganesha pendant is the focal point of this Joseph Brooks labradorite necklace.
Another thing that impressed me about his work was how versatile its appeal was to both men and women.
I asked for a bio so I could include a bit of information about the designer and found more than I could possibly have expected. It seems that not only was I taken with his work, but I was in good company; it is also collected by Madonna, Lennie Kravitz, Siouxsie Sioux, and the Jonas Brothers, and Justin Timberlake wore two of Brooks’ turquoise necklaces for his photo on the cover of Rolling Stone.
Most of the designers I know, myself included, would love to have our work in the hands of rock stars like these and we wonder how to make that happen. My own claim to fame in this department was having been commissioned to make a pair of guitar pick earrings for Judy Collins to commemorate the two Signature Edition guitars issued by Martin in her name. but my experience pales in comparison.
Brooks had his audience already in hand, because, before he became a jewelry designer, he was immersed in the rock music scene, as the owner of the iconic Vinyl Fetish record store on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles in the 1980s, and later as nightclub host and DJ. He rubbed elbows with all kind of musical acts and jumpstarted the careers of others, like Guns n Roses. It seems that I had stumbled upon the Website of a rock legend whose passion for a different kind of rocks is adding another facet to his impressive life story.
Folds and Facets 