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Machele Nettles was working as an interior designer when she stumbled into jewelry design. With a deep creative background, Machele has experience in interior design, design-building and photography. She is also well versed in creative direction, design consulting, product design and video production. With that kind of background it doesn’t seem like a stretch to take a side step into being a jeweler, but the move was unintentional – at first.
She explains, “In conjunction with contract work I was always making my own work. It straddles the grey area between art and design, often with scientific undertones and the re-contextualization of objects. I was making mostly furniture/home décor and that started getting heavy, literally.”
Machele wanted to try working at a smaller scale and explore working with decorative elements. “There were some old chandelier crystals hanging in my window. I thought that a light-catcher concept was solid and I could just put my spin on it. After coming across some scientific glass, I started making hanging architectural decorations. Every girlfriend that came to my house took them off the window and put them around their neck.
I’d never made jewelry and didn’t really want to completely switch gears, again, but the amount of people that got a twinkle in their eye when they saw this glass around their neck was overwhelming and eventually I caved.”
Seeing the viability of working in jewelry, Machele sought out the tools to really manifest her ideas. This lead her to NextFab and specifically to the North Philadelphia location and its jewelry studio. She soon started her company Idol Light.
In addition to access to tools and staff at NextFab, Machele made good use of other resources like panels and community markets to kick-start her business. She also used kickstarter and had a successfully funded campaign. “I ordered a piece from her Kickstarter campaign,” says Marcelle Rice, NextFab’s Marketing Manager, “and every detail about that experience was so intentional from the packaging to the personalized thank you note. It goes without saying that her product is spectacular but she’s also got the skills and the devotion that it takes to promote herself, and that’s what really makes her work stand out.”
Machele’s work is immediately striking. It’s at first simple–clean, colorful and geometric–but as you look closer it draws you in to greater complexity. Colors magically shift, surfaces change from reflective to transparent and the “jewels” appear to have infinite depth. These qualities are the product of using scientific glass. Machele hand cuts the facets on a lap wheel. Cutting the facets is very precise work when making complex symmetrical pieces, a subtle deviation and the corners won’t line up.
“I’ve always been into the sciences – specifically physics and quantum theory, astronomy, neurology, pathology, and anything cutting edge. I like to understand how things work and topics that we don’t have the answers to yet fascinate me. Scientific objects, instruments and infographics intrigue me – there are so many ways the sciences have informed my work.”
Although the aesthetic qualities of the glass were the initial consideration, Machele also loves to learn about the how and why. The glass that she uses is primarily scientific refuse. The scientific qualities of the glass are intriguing and she’s always hungry to learn more about their technical character.
“I’ve been digging deeper into optics because I’m trying to understand how and what this glass that I have is actually doing.” Machele tells me, “I call it light magic but I’m super into understanding the science behind it all. I’m always researching and almost all of my leisure reading is nonfiction. A few authors I enjoy are Michio Kaku, Brian Greene, Isaac Asimov, Oliver Sacks, and Arthur Clarke. All of this affects the outcome of my work – either directly with tangible materials and processes, or indirectly by giving me some newfound perspective that changes my perception of a work’s meaning.”
Machele is very conscious of the impact of her work. In a consumer society that produces garbage at an ever-accelerating rate, she’s very weary of adding more junk to the world. She’s been able to gracefully invert that by turning “junk” into jewelry. The scientific glass that is the core of her work is all industrial refuse. The dichroic glass has specific coatings and angles that must meet incredibly high tolerances for industrial applications. If the glass doesn’t meet the high specifications for its intended use, it becomes waste material. Since Machele doesn’t use lasers in her work (yet) and the imperfections are seldom visible – the glass is perfect for her work.
“After getting a degree in industrial design, I wanted nothing to do with mass production. The program I went through was pretty blue sky and environmentally driven. That manifested for me in the way that my work is usually questioning the nature of objects and there is often an aspect of upcycling or re-purposing.” She explains, “I like to re-contextualize familiar objects in new ways to create something that is simultaneously familiar and cutting edge. A lot of ‘garbage’ is actually just misdirected. Manufacturers don’t see the value in their cast-offs or deadstock, and/or can’t find a proper outlet for it. The jewelry started out that way – glass used for laser optics has extremely high standards. Sometimes a batch doesn’t meet spec and gets tossed. I thought that was a good opportunity.”
“The facility and staff have been invaluable,” says Machele. “The community is second to none and there are so many tools available to learn and use. I say I’m self-taught but in actuality being a member at NF is like having a private teacher whenever you need one. There is no way I’d be half as far along in jewelry making if it weren’t for NextFab and specifically Melissa [Guglielmo] and her expertise– shout out! She has been unbelievably helpful and supportive throughout my entire process.”
Melissa Guglielmo is the North Philadelphia Location Manager & Jewelry Supervisor. She tells me, “Over the last three years, Machele has worked to bring the visually stunning jewelry line Idol Light to life. As she learned to use new materials in the Jewelry Studio here, she was able to rely on her design background to inform the process. Each piece brings the need for research and model making to optimize the captivating effects of the beam splitting scientific glass. The jewelry inherently creates a playful wonder as the light projections uniquely cast onto the body and its environment. I look forward to brainstorming solutions with her – from firing kiln experiments to CNC routing wax, Machele’s open minded approach to design bears gorgeous results!”
Machele currently sells her work at stores and galleries around Philadelphia, as well as on her website idol-light.com, and through her Instagram account @idol.light.
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