Private Commissions

Tape Necklaces and Box

2003

Commissioned by Nick Chiodini, Los Angeles, California
Medium: Glass beads, thread, silver clasp; Box: raw silk, archival board, thread, nickel snap
Dimensions: Necklace: 35 3/4 × 1 3/8 in.; Box: [insert dimensions]
Photograph: Courtesy of the artists

Commission Overview
By 2003, our friend Nick Chiodini was thriving in Los Angeles, working in casting and “making bank,” as we joked at the time. Having already commissioned one of our earliest beaded cuffs, he returned to commission another piece—this time a hand-loomed beadwork necklace. Looking back, it’s incredible to see how deeply our friends believed in us, supporting our practice in those early years when every commission helped us keep creating.

Artistic Approach
Nick’s favorite color was blue, so William designed a bead tape with a deep blue ground inset with geometric white rectangles. The work was loomed with straight edges in keeping with the natural structure of the loom—vertical warp threads intersecting with horizontal wefts. The ends were finished with tubular peyote-stitched sections, reinforced to carry the weight of our handmade silver clasps.

Initially conceived as a necklace, Nick also imagined it as a belt. Because the first version was not quite the right length, William remade it, resulting in a pair of nearly identical works. Both pieces were ultimately housed together in a custom box.

The box itself was an early experiment in more complex forms. Built from raw silk over an archival board structure, the silhouette required scored and shaped edges to create its irregular profile. A small nickel snap closure was set into a woven silk tab. The fiery orange top and bottom contrasted with tan sides, creating a bold and playful container for the jewelry inside.

Engagement and Impact
For Nick, the necklace was both adornment and personal symbol—something wearable that also reflected his personality and taste. For us, the process reinforced the challenges of precision, durability, and presentation in our jewelry works, and it showed how much collectors like Nick were willing to invest in supporting our vision.

Context and Legacy
Tape Necklace and Box stands out as an early moment of refinement: testing new clasp systems, exploring functional variations like belts, and building increasingly sophisticated box structures. It also deepened a formative friendship. Nick’s continued support during those years was more than patronage—it was belief in our world, our “Ladd universe,” at a time when we were still defining it.