Jewelry artist expands her repertoire to include tableware
Portrait by Lauren Rutten
Amanda Ray Danko’s jewelry speaks for itself, and it’s loud. Her “Botanical” series of dangle earrings look a lot like cannabis leaves; her tombstone studs are etched with messages like “R.I.P. Patriarchy” and “Vote or Die.” With such bold statement pieces, it’s easy to see why Danko is best known for her Lost Cove Jewelry venture.
“But I should also mention that I accidentally became a tableware maker too,” says Danko.
It all started with a problem: Charlotte L. Autry, a food and prop stylist in Asheville, couldn’t find visually interesting cocktail picks. And so, when asked to help, Danko not only designed custom garnish picks for Autry’s photoshoots, she also created an entire cocktail set with a brass spoon and two-prong fork. Fittingly named, the “Charlotte” proved quite photogenic, and, as customers would soon find, perfect to accessorize loaded Bloody Marys and other craft cocktails.
Photo by Lauren Rutten
Emboldened by the new venture, Danko soon produced a pair of serving spoons as a birthday gift for her friend, Evan. “He’s a veggie farmer and loves to make a salad each day,” she says. Crafted of hammered brass, the instruments are visually inspired by the rusticity of classic radicchio salads with olive oil, lemon, salt, and pepper.
The line of tableware grew from there, expanding to include four cocktail-pick sets and two more serving spoons. As far as style, the utensils are similar to Danko’s jewelry in that each design revolves around simplicity. However, when it comes to process, the two are entirely different. Whereas Danko typically uses metal shears to cut her earrings from lightweight brass, she relies on a water-jet cutting tool at UNCA’s STEAM Studio to create her spoons, forks, and picks.
Once back at Marshall High Studios, she adds the finishing touches, like hammering the brass for texture. “A lot of my work is repetitive and meditative; most craft is,” notes Danko, who took her first jewelry class at the Sharon Arts Center in Peterborough, New Hampshire, when she was 14.
Growing up, Danko stood out in her rural New England town of 1,000 people. While her parents wore uniforms to their blue-collar jobs, Danko preferred to “really layer on” adornments. Obsessed with hippie culture, she soon found a mentor in a “scrappy Joni Mitchell lookalike” and silversmith by the name of Sussy-Rose Shields. “She introduced jewelry to me as a sustainable form of artistic expression and financial stability,” says Danko.
After attending the California College of Arts and Crafts and working in hair styling and window dressing in New York City, Danko returned to jewelry in 2014, six years after moving to North Carolina. She now offers her adornments at Garden Party Elevated Objects in West Asheville and her tableware on her website and with Fieldshop by Garden and Gun, a retail store and website connected with the Charleston, South Carolina-based lifestyle magazine.
“Though my tableware emerged from necessity, it is now about taking something so utilitarian and elevating it,” says Danko. “It’s about making the everyday special.”
Amanda Ray Danko, Marshall High Studios #108, 115 Blannahassett Island Road, Marshall. The artist’s work can be purchased at lostcovejewelry.com and at Garden Party Elevated Objects (315 Haywood Road, Suite 113, West Asheville, shopgardenparty.com). See also ggfieldshop.com.