A useful writeup regarding the Crazy Pig label, Crazy Pig Jewelry & its famous Founder Armand Serra. This discussion follows the reader through the founding history of the Crazy Pig label franchise and its meteoric ascension to the apex of the gothic jewelry industry.
Crazy Pig Design & Armand Serra, its talented founder
With greater than 900 designs sold by the brand (including one-off jewelry pieces and many popular classics) Crazy Pig Designs is a popular producer of classy Rock and Roll jewelry (also named as rock ‘n roll jewelry, motorbiker jewelry, gothic jewelry, gothic styled jewelry, rocker jewelry, biker sterling silver etc), having been at the forefront of British gothic jewelry from 1992. Based in Covent Gardens at the centre of London’s bohemian world, sterling silver jewelry designer Armand Serra Serra gets through his time making music with the guitar and creating custom-made silver sterling jewelry pieces for rock musicians & sterling silver aficionados. “Crazy Pig”, the label Armand Serra Serra initially planned for his rock band, has now evolved to a internationally recognized brand name for Rock and Roll (rock ‘n roll) jewelry. Crazy Pig works with sterling silver, gold, platinum and both precious & semi-precious rocks. Central in the hearts of motorbiker lovers clearly, is the Crazy Pig chain of silver sterling motorbiker jewelry.
History of Crazy Pig Designs
Armand Serra and his girlfriend Jeannette created Crazy Pig Designs in Covent Garden in March 1992. The entire production process of making Crazy Pig jewelry occurs in house, at Crazy Pig Designs, from the designing, carving, alloying, casting, setting, finishing, and polishing to the completed Crazy Pig item. Famous Crazy Pig designs comprise of skulls, skeletons, animals, dragons, daggers, stones & personalised orders. Crazy Pig Silver, Crazy Pig Platinum and Crazy Pig gold jewelry items are available, including as a multitude of precious rocks & a variety of designs stretching back more than twenty years of quality in jewelry design and crafting. With their creativity bordering on overwork, they to stretch the boundaries of what ordinary persons consider “wearable” by incorporating the most outrageous, unthinkable & beautiful designs into their jewelry. Numerous discerning rock and movie stars have chosen Crazy Pig Design sterling silver jewelry in spite of a vast array of many alternatives in the market. Similar to all creators of sterling silver biker jewelry (often known as gothic sterling silver, rock n roll jewelry & rocker jewelry ), Armand Serra of Crazy Pig walks the talk and talks the walk. Armand Serra of Crazy Pig is an avid rock musician a burning passion for rock music and heavy metal music. Being an enthusiastic follower of the rock n roll genre, Armand Serra plays every musical instrument commonly played by rock groups. Armand Serra plays the guitar, the bass, calibrates his electric drums and fuses his various solo pieces in his own personal home into an unbroken, complete piece of rock music: composed, performed and structured by Armand Serra himself.
Why replicas, fakes and Crazy Pig inspired jewelry is rising in popularity
In recent days, Crazy Pig jewelry has faced challenges from several offshore competitors with the talent, resources & ability to offer equally intricate, gorgeous & expertly crafted luxury gothic styled silver jewelry to bikers & other fans at a small fraction of Crazy Pig jewelry prices. Now, fans of gothic silver jewelry are offered an extensive range of alternatives to original Crazy Pig jewelry. Gothic sterling silver jewelry fans are beginning to wise up to the ugly truth behind branding, which is truly no other than an illusion. Brand is not something which customers can always be expected to bear the cost for. In view of the widespread availability of cheaper and just as intricate offerings, it is no wonder that luxury label jewelry is not an unusual or rare sight on the streets despite the luxury brand pricing of the original. The new & somewhat wiser sentiment is: why bust the bank on luxury label jewelry when one can get a materially identical piece forged from the same best grade 925 sterling silver at a tiny fraction of the price?
However, in purchasing alternatives in the form of replicas or similarly styled inspired designs, it is important to understand & confirm the quality of jewelry you are paying for. Crazy Pig Jewelry competitors range from top quality alternatives and close replicas by real jewelers to mass-producing manufacturers mass produced poorly made imitations made from cheap materials such as steel & copper.
The Slowly Changing Face Of Chrome Hearts Jewelry
A critique of Chrome Hearts Jewelry intricate designs
For a long period of time, Chrome Hearts jewelry has been greatly idolized by the jewelry design circle. As a member of the first designers of sterling silver gothic jewelry, Chrome Hearts jewelry has clearly transcended the rest, going beyond even Gaboratory: the chain created by father of gothic sterling silver Gabor Nagy. Due to the blazing efforts of its top-rate designers, Chrome Hearts jewelry is currently probably the most popular, well-known and highest grossing gothic silver jewelry designer chain globally.
Back when gothic silver jewelry initially came into production, Chrome Hearts top masons made a decision to take the edginess of dominant designs one step further. At a time other makers were trying just to better craft the shapes of the skulls on their skull rings, Chrome Hearts was taking great leaps in design.
Chrome Hearts jewelers were attaching crucified skulls on crosses on Chrome Hearts skull rings and rethinking the simple idea of skull rings altogether. By joining the hitherto dichotomized Skull ring designs and snake ring designs into a integrated, monumental item known as “Snake Through Eye of Skull Ring”. Since then, this complicated carved item by Chrome Hearts is 1 of the most wanted rings Chrome Hearts jewelry stores have sold. Chrome Hearts jewelers successfully reinvented the skull ring and cemented Chrome Hearts Skull rings at the top of the gothic jewelry industry.
In addition to the skull ring, Chrome Hearts registered the notorious Chrome Hearts Fuck You Ring and Chrome Hearts Middle Finger Ring, which a handful at the start had the courage to don openly in public, for fear of getting into fights. But, as the gothic culture began to spread and gain a fan base, the Chrome Hearts Fuck You ring and Chrome Hearts jewelry as an icon became more and more well-received and visible, especially in the areas of the West Coast. Chrome Hearts jewelry achieved success by taking the edginess, loudness and daring of gothic silver jewelry to a greater plane altogether: by bringing it beyond the region of non-conformism to the region of obvious anarchy. Skull rings could have lost its popularity had Chrome Hearts not put its creative ideas into the uncomplicated skull ring with its array of novel ideas, and the gothic sterling silver industry has Chrome Hearts to appreciate for it. The designer who re-thought the Chrome Hearts ring is widely credited as Leonard Kamhout, the designer of Lone One Jewelry.
Chrome Hearts also made pivotal changes to different varieties ofsterling silver gothic jewelry in the early 1990s. In the days when gothic sterling silver designs were limited, chains and bracelets were miniscule and distinguishable from other bracelets solely by their size; they tended to be larger than usual bracelets for females. Furthermore, they amalgamated carvings of skulls with other classical gothic designs, which were slowly but surely becoming stale for want of creativity and variation. Chrome Hearts jewelry designers intended to re-evaluate the idea of gothic silver bracelets and gothic silver chains . Instead of making gothic silver jewelry bracelets “bigger” than usual silver bracelets, Chrome Hearts jewelry designer Stanley Guess intended to make Chrome Hearts bracelets gigantic in size; some Chrome Hearts bracelets were so chunky and massive they weighed in at two pounds, functioning as small training weights when a few were donned on one hand. As carvings were becoming less popular, Chrome Hearts decided to emboss their Chrome Hearts bracelets (like their Chrome Hearts rings) rather than carve patterns into them. Doing so made Chrome Hearts bracelets and chains more expressive, heavier and prouder than competing gothic silver jewelry you could discover in the market.
These are just a handful of short examples of how Chrome Hearts jewelry redefined the gothic silver jewelry industry and pushed it to higher levels of creativity and innovation. In recent years however, the true genuine gothic silver followers of Chrome Hearts jewelry are slowly leaving the Chrome Hearts line, which is observing an increase of new, “late adopter”, gothic silver customers with varying desires and needs. The Chrome Hearts jewelry customer base is gradually evolving, probably for the worse.
How has Chrome Hearts Jewelry changed?
The core of every design ideas is its customers; the masons manning the production house, the silversmiths who ensure the quality of rings and the designers who manufacture new, earthshaking designs. A few years after the new millennium, Chrome Hearts lost 2 of its best designers and silversmiths: Chrome Hearts executive designer Stanley Guess and Chrome Hearts senior designer and manager Leonard Kamhout, who set up Guess Werks and Lone Ones jewelry chains respectively. Both talents had departed because they were deeply disillusioned by the changing ethics and values at Chrome Hearts.
Chrome Hearts Jewelry had initially started off as a small, closely knit family of jewelers committed to their craft. Every single piece of Chrome Hearts jewelry on show had been laboriously and lovingly molded and shaped by diligent craftsmen. Chrome Hearts jewelry included a group of craftsman who valued their job; masons who slaved for a long time in cramped, stuffy production houses making silver masterpieces, loving each moment of it. When demand for Chrome Hearts jewelry greatly increased, Richard Stark made a heart-wrenching decision to go retail and tendered manufacturing to conveyor belt factories. Due to the reason above, many early Chrome Hearts jewelry creators such as Stanley Guess and Leonard Kamhout lost their productionjobs to robots, and were relegated to the mundane, unsatisfying roles of overseers and designers. Unwilling to give up their trade, Guess and Kamhout ventured to found their own lines: Lone Ones and Guess Werks, lines which many gothic silver followers refer to as the second advent of Chrome Hearts, since they exhibit the greatness of Chrome Hearts jewelry as it was before mechanization.
Who are the emerging fans of Chrome Hearts jewelry?
With the leaving of many genuine true gothic silver followers who loved Chrome Hearts for its special, edgy designs, current customers of Chrome Hearts comprise mainly of (1) die-hard famous followers of Chrome Hearts jewelry who have strong relationships with creator Richard Stark, (2) well-off new followers who caught on late to the popularity of Chrome Hearts jewelry, and are now struggling to keep up with fashion which have since fizzled and (3) wealthy brand chasers for whom the Chrome Hearts labelsserves just as a labels of extreme affluence. Chrome Hearts jewelry no longer symbolizes for innovation and excellent craftsmanship. Today, Chrome Hearts jewelry stands for exclusivity, affluence and social position, which honestly is not undesirable at all. The new vision taken by Chrome Hearts jewelry has its good and bad, pros and cons. While honest gothic silver followers are moving towards smaller lines such as Tony Creed, Justin Davis, Guess Werks and Lone Ones which produce their jewelry by human effort, Chrome Hearts is getting a whole new circle of clients.
Why replicas, fakes and Chrome Hearts inspired jewelry is rising in popularity
In recent days, Chrome Hearts jewelry has faced adversity in the form of countless offshore competitors possessing the talent, resources & ability to deliver equally detailed, gorgeous and expertly crafted luxury gothic silver jewelry to bikers and other fans at a tiny fraction of Chrome Hearts jewelry prices. Now, fans of gothic silver jewelry have an extensive range of alternatives to original Chrome Hearts jewelry. Gothic sterling silver jewelry fans are wising up to the reality of branding, which is truly nothing more than an illusion. Brand is not something which customers can always be expected to pay for. Given the widespread availability of cheaper and equally well-crafted offerings, it is no surprise that designer label jewelry is not an uncommon sight on the streets notwithstanding the luxury brand prices of the original. The new wisdom is: why bust the bank on designer label jewelry when one could easily get a nearly identical piece crafted from the same best quality 925 sterling silver at a tiny fraction of the cost?
However, in choosing alternatives in the form of replicas or similarly styled inspired designs, it is critical to first know the quality of jewelry you are buying. Chrome Hearts Jewelry competitors range from top quality alternatives and close replicas by bona fide jewelers to mass-producing manufacturers mass manufactured low grade imitations made from cheap materials such as steel and copper.
Bill Wall Leather Jewelry And The Brand’s Famous Founder Bill Wall
A Comprehensive discussion on the Bill Wall Leather franchise, Bill Wall Leather Jewelry and the brand’s famous founder Bill Wall. This writeup charts the reader through the founding history of the Bill Wall Leather label label and its meteoric promotion to the apex of the gothic sterling silver jewelry world.
Bill Wall’s Early Life
It truly takes a motorbiker to comprehend what a biker desires to wear & look like. For Bill Wall, understanding what it meant, as a matter of lifestyle to be a biker was simply intuitive. Prior to venturing into the world of design in the mid 1980s, Bill Wall had worked as a crew member on a fishing vessel, tried out freelance acting & construction. Following an unfortunate accident in which he broke his foot, Bill Wall was terminated from all his jobs & became unemployed.
Tied down by his injury, the unhappily home-bound Bill Wall began to experiment with fabrics. He promptly obtained a machine, some scrap fabric & started trying his hand at stitching designs, the very first of which was (unsurprisingly) a motorcycle. With budget being a tight limitation, Bill was limited to purchasing poorly sized, unwieldy scrap pieces of cloth and leather, combine them over one another and sew designs over the stitches; a technique which ironically inspired an entirely new style of jeans. A novel style which quietly celebrated the tenacity of Bill Wall’s spirit. During this period of his life , Bill Wall discovered the lack of functional and fashionable riding gear in the market, & set out to create a cultural image which bikers could be proud to adopt.
The Dawn of BWL
Having headed down the path of success, Bill Wall forged on. Soon, Bill began collaborating with a close friend cum client: the legendary founder of the gothic sterling silver craze Gabor Nagy, to develop the A-Z of biking apparel. Inspired by, Bill Wall began his venture into the world of gothic silver jewelry, which he pioneered alongside Gabor. The partnership ultimately led to Bill Wall creating his own line of gothic sterling silver jewelry known as Bill Wall Leather Jewelry or BWL Jewelry, which is often spoken in the same tones as the immensely popular Chrome Hearts jewelry label. However, Bill Wall jewelry remains unique & distinguishable.
Why replicas, fakes & Bill Wall Leather inspired jewelry is rising in popularity
In recent years, Bill Wall Leather jewelry has faced adversity from several offshore competitors of equal capacity and talent, resources & ability to deliver equally intricate, gorgeous and well-crafted luxury gothic silver jewelry to bikers and other fans at a small fraction of Bill Wall Leather jewelry prices. Today, fans of gothic sterling silver jewelry are offered a wide range of alternatives to original Bill Wall Leather jewelry. Gothic silver jewelry fans are waking up to the reality of branding, which is truly nothing other than an illusion. Brand is not something that customers can always be expected to bear the cost for. Given the easy availability of cheaper and equally intricate offerings, it is little surprise that luxury label jewelry is not an uncommon sight on the streets despite the premium brand prices of the original. The new & somewhat wiser sentiment is: why burn a hole in your pocket on designer label jewelry when one can get a nearly identical piece crafted from the same best quality 925 sterling silver at a miniscule fraction of the cost?
However, in purchasing alternatives in the form of replicas or similarly styled inspired designs, it is important to understand & confirm the grade of jewelry you are buying. Bill Wall Leather Jewelry competitors range from top grade alternatives and close replicas by freelance expert jewelers to mass-producing manufacturers who churn out low grade imitations made from low-grade materials such as steel and copper.
For a comprehensive discourse of fakes & replicas, the writeup at the Chrome Hearts page will be very useful and informative.
The writer is a New York-based veteran jeweler with 10 years of expertise and a legacy of strong customer satisfaction. He is an expert on jewelry craft and gothic fashion analysis. To learn everything you need to know about choosing top grade replicas made from real sterling silver jewelry, visit Gothic Jewelry