My Right Hand
- Lucia Rambusch-Adam
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
I saw my friend last night who is recovering from an injury similar to one I had in summer of 2021. This injury changed the trajectory of my journey. I always wanted to be a master bench jeweler. It wasn’t a smooth ride. From 2018-2020 on nights and weekends I trained with master goldsmiths in Denver and on the East Coast, gaining the skills so that I could design and create original jewelry from scratch in the studio. I was preparing to move to part-time in my Corporate career and start to found my own jewelry business and brand. I was always taught you need to know when you are asking too much or too little and the only way to do that is by being a master at the task you are asking to have completed... Thus I wanted to now how to do and make anything related to jewelry, from beading to pearl knotting, to stone setting and soldering an wax carving, casting and enameling before I started creating sand selling my own pieces.
Just as I hit my stride, COVID shut everything down—and then a boating accident in the summer of 2021 took my right hand out of commission for months. When I fell I tore all the ligaments off of my right thumb. I could not hold a cup, I could not write, I could not even pull up my pants without being in excruciating pain. Thank goodness for elastic waist waistbands!
In October 2021, I had surgery on my right hand and the road to recovery took about nine months. Even now, I don’t have full use of that hand, but I can do most everything I need, but detailed soldering, stone setting and the detail work you need to do as a jeweler became almost impossible.
The heart wrenching experience gave me perspective. It forced me to pause and rethink what it meant to be a jeweler—and in that space, I reconnected with my identity as a designer. As I healed, I realized that collaboration could be just as powerful as craftsmanship. Embracing this shift, my designs still begin at the bench and begin by creating pieces that start as one-of-a-kind originals—handcrafted by me—and are then brought to life in collaboration with master jewelers and lapidary artists in New York, California, Rhode Island, Italy, and Jaipur so the designs can be reproduced in small-batches for many to enjoy.
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