Designed by Paris-based Michèle Lamy and Los Angeles-based Loree Rodkin, the high luxury HunRod jewelry brand takes its name from Lamy’s nickname, “Hun” and the first three letters of Rodkin’s surname. Having launched at Dover Street Market in 2014, HunRod’s limited edition pieces have been sold in that store’s various outposts around the world since then. Now, however, the new HunRod Gold collection based on the Chinese Zodiac is available exclusively through Carpenters Workshop Jewellery and is on display in Carpenters Workshop Gallery London at 79 Barlby Rd. through April 27, 2024. The collection consists of 12 rings embodying the different symbols that animate Chinese astrology.

Gleaming, sparkling and glowing, the 18-karat yellow gold and white gold jewels embody quirky silhouettes influenced by boldly scaled Brutalist forms and the earthy, expressive power of tribal jewelry. Set with diamonds in various hues, along with select colored gemstones, the flamboyant, big and baroque rings range in price from $23,500 excluding VAT for the HunRod Gold Ox ring to $50,127 excluding VAT for the HunRod Tiger ring. Or, as Loïc Le Gaillard, who co-founded Carpenters Workshop with his childhood friend Julien Lombrail puts it, “Michèle and Loree’s jewels appeal to collectors and jewelry lovers, to people who love unusual adornment.” Or, to put it more bluntly, HunRod appeals to high net worth individuals with adventurous taste. After all, judging from the enthusiastic crowd I observed at the HunRod Chinese Zodiac collection at Carpenters Workshop London, there is an international market for this kind of jewelry. Whether you’re a well-paid millennial, billionaire bohemian or astrologically inclined animal lover who likes monumental jewels: these rings are for you.

I caught up with HunRod’s co-designer Michèle Lamy in the Carpenters Workshop London space at the launch of her and Rodkin’s Chinese zodiac range. Lamy was wearing the Dragon ring from her collection, and as the diamond and ruby-studded creature climbed up to her middle knuckle and boasted white gold hoop earrings, it made a fierce but festive impression. Noting that HunRod jewels are handmade in Los Angeles, Lamy said that her and Rodkin’s design process is “Always very easy, smooth and enjoyable. We are both decisive, we know what we want and our artisans are masters.” Then again, Rodkin and Lamy are two seasoned designers who encourage each other to explore the wilder shores of jewelry design.

Rodkin has created bespoke commissions for such connoisseurs and popular artists as Elizabeth Taylor, Madonna, Steven Tyler, Elton John and Cher. Chicago-born Rodkin also designed First Lady Michelle Obama’s inaugural jewelry (worn to gala events on January 20, 2009). As those pieces reside in the Smithsonian Institution’s permanent collection, which forms part of the U.S. national archive, Rodkin’s place in history seems assured.

It would also appear that Lamy, who is the wife and business partner of Paris-based, avant-garde fashion designer Rick Owens, also has an assured place in applied arts history. (When I first met Lamy in 1987 Los Angeles, she was designing the fashion-forward LAMY clothing brand, which was headquartered in downtown Los Angeles.) In addition to her HunRod jewels, Lamy supervises construction of Rick Owens’s monumental RO furniture, consults for various fashion brands and designs and performs in “Lamyland,” her idiosyncratic art project series.

Born and educated in France, Lamy comes from a bloodline rich in refined design and entrepreneurship. While her grandfather designed accessories for the innovative couturier Paul Poiret (1879 – 1944), other relatives were involved with developing ski resorts. When I first met Lamy in Los Angeles in 1987, she was designing the fashion-forward LAMY clothing line and donating use of her company parking lot to the kinetic sculptural collective L.A. Steamworks, where its members exhibited steam-powered, pneumatically powered and water-powered sculptures. As Los Angeles-based sculptor Brett Goldstone, who also happens to be my husband, explained, “Thanks to Michèle and her parking lot, we presented shows that could never be staged inside galleries due to insurmountable insurance challenges. Between her support of sculptors and the musicians that she presented at Les Deux Cafes,” he mused, “Michèle contributed significantly to the Los Angeles art community.”

When I met with Lamy, her HunRod dragon ring competed with six or seven other theatrically impressive, diamond-studded HunRod pieces on her black-dyed digits, replete with black nails. (More about these curiosities later.) “I’ve always worn a lot of rings,” she recounted in husky tones over a glass of Sancerre and a cigarette in the Carpenters Workshop Gallery London bar. In a festive mood owing to the Chinese Zodiac collection debut and celebrations related to her recent 80^th birthday, Lamy smiled broadly, revealing intriguing jewels lodged in her teeth. Yes, you read that correctly, for the incomparable mosaic of Lamy’s mouth forms a jewelry genre unto itself. Lamy’s teeth are variously framed by gold, filled with gold and studded with sparkling gemstones.

Lamy’s oral adornment odyssey began in mid-1990s L.A., while she was running her restaurant Café des Artistes and programming the cabaret space Les Deux Cafes out of a bungalow on North Las Palmas in Hollywood. “I needed to replace some mercury fillings and I found a holistic dentist,” she recalled. In short order, her teeth abounded with glowing gold and white brilliant-cut diamonds. “I didn’t stop there,” Lamy continued. “I have since had gold and rock crystal, and gold and colored diamonds embedded in my teeth.” Lamy also commissioned a custom removable mouth guard to protect her bejeweled choppers during her beloved boxing workouts.

But back to Lamy’s fingers. “I figured out a way I could dye my nails and skin with vegetable-based hair dye,” she confided. “I don’t care for nail polish but I like black nails.” Any description of Lamy would also be incomplete without mentioning the thick, kohl-black line that runs down the middle of her forehead like a dividing line between right and left brain hemispheres. While I counted seven ear piercings, it looked like she was only wearing three small earrings. As for Lamy’s mega-bracelets, these included clattering, three inch-wide; bulbous silver and resin bangles by Christiane Billet, a French artist affiliated with the Parisian jewelry gallery Naila de Monbrison. “I am hoping that this latest HunRod collection is worn and loved by all kinds of people,” she said. While I love all the Chinese zodiac designs we came up with, I like the dragon a lot since 2024 is the year of the dragon.”

Underneath all her HunRod jewels, dyed black fingers, Rick Owens clothing, forehead marking and glimmering, shimmering teeth, Lamy remains at age 80 one of the most productive women in the applied arts. Having worked so successfully with Loree Rodkin for several years on their HunRod collaboration, one finds it hard to imagine Lamy ever stopping.

A bold, bizarre persona and the aura of mystery created by same have never been essential for creating great fashion or jewelry. In Lamy’s case, however, they do help guarantee that people will find her and HunRod jewelry so intriguing that they purchase a piece or two. While HunRod’s Chinese Zodiac collection is also available online, it will be exhibited to the public at the PAD London art fair in Berkley Square from October 12 to October 16.