Art of Gold: Fine Jewelry Maker Pamela Froman to Appear at Trendz

One of Trendz shoppers’ favorite jewelry artisans will be back to visit with them and make new friends at the jewelry, art and more store again this July.

Pamela Froman did not set out to become an award-winning fine jewelry maker in her college years. The Manhattan native planned to be a fashion designer upon enrolling in New York City’s Fashion Institute of Technology. As she studied and worked in the fashion industry, Froman discovered “Fashion was not for me!” she says emphatically. Fortunately, FIT allowed students to explore other areas of design. As soon as Froman tried her hand at jewelry design, she was hooked.

Froman sold her earliest creations at flea markets in New York.

After graduating from the Fashion Institute, the artisan relocated to Paris for three years. There, she designed jewelry for leading haute couture salons, including Courreges, Cacharel, Carita, Guy Laroche and Valentino. Today, Froman shares a studio with her husband, photographer Jay Lawrence Goldman, in the heart of Los Angeles, where she applies the craftswomanship that makes her jewelry distinctive.

There’s a method to Froman’s distinction.

“I mix my own alloys to get a different color gold” in each piece of jewelry, she says. As a result, “My 18 karat yellow gold is a much more vibrant yellow and my 18 karat pink gold is more peachy, which complements many women’s skin types.” In order to produce Froman’s “ombre” effect, a color variation in which one color fades seamlessly into another, she mixes 18 karat yellow and pink gold. To create a “mélange,” the jewelry maker combines white, pink, yellow and green 18 karat gold. Froman adds texture to her pieces with a signature technique that she dubs “Crushed.”

These are some of the reasons why people who have been introduced to Pamela Froman Fine Jewelry recognize it when they see it again, she notes.

Such artistry has earned Froman many awards, including the prestigious Town & Country (Magazine) Couture Design Award for Best of Gold during the early days of her career. In 2015, the Women’s Jewelry Association’s members chose Froman as their designer of the year when they presented her with the highly coveted WJA Award for Excellence in Design. This WJA award recognizes a jewelry maker’s body of work.

Inspiration for her art comes from various places, the jewelry maker muses. “It’s very strange. I sometimes dream it in the middle of the night,” Froman says. “I also find architecture to be very inspiring, as do most jewelry designers.” On other occasions, Froman designs a motif and tinkers with it in order to create a number of different designs.

“I stress that my work is American made,” the artisan says. “That is important to me.”

Froman’s handmade jewelry items range from minimalist to elaborate in style. They’re versatile in that they might be worn either casually or dressy. Some pieces are designed to be interchangeable so that they might accompany either a leather cord necklace or a gold chain. The jewelry designer gladly reworks and customizes an item when it does not quite fit a client’s needs. She customizes wedding rings, family heirlooms and more by creating new designs for client’s sentimentally valued treasures, as well.

Pamela Froman Fine Jewelry is sold in specialty stores, oftentimes in resort locations like Stone Harbor. Celebrities including Halle Berry, Diane Lane, Debra Messing, Meredith Brooks, Whoopi Goldberg, Norah Jones and Eva Mendes wear Froman’s creations.

For the past four years, Froman’s jewelry has also been well-received by customers at Trendz on 96th Street. Thus, the designer will return to Trendz to introduce her latest jewelry line on Friday and Saturday, July 19 and 20. Froman enjoys meeting new clients and catching up with her collectors who purchase specifics, like earrings or crosses, at her trunk shows.

“I have a bunch of collectors in Stone Harbor,” she says. “We have nice relationships.”

Those relationships sometimes in-spire Froman to create a design with a collector in mind.

“It’s fun for me when a piece of jewelry surprises a client or a collector” with its likability after trying it on, Froman says. “Each piece is my baby. The great thing about a trunk show is that I get to see my babies go home!”

In recent summertime shows, Froman has been pleasantly surprised by the number of her other offspring – wedding rings and men’s rings – that have been going home, too.

Trendz owner Amy Hardy looks forward to Froman’s store visit. “Pamela creates jewelry with such fabulous texture and use of color,” Hardy asserts. “She puts her heart and soul into it!”

Apparently Trendz shoppers agree. Pamela Froman Fine Jewelry has a faithful following there.

Says Hardy: “Pamela has friends at Trendz!”