Ever had a massive music crush? Like those crazy girls who threw their underwear at Sex Bomb Tom Jones or the fainting damsels in the front row of a Beatles concert? Or a 13 year old Belieber crying because Justin looked in her direction and that means he is now one step closer to fulfilling her life long dream of marrying him and having his babies?

Well that is me with UK rock band Lower Than Atlantis, except I am 32 years old  and so far I haven’t fainted , no tears have been shed and recently when I met the boys, managed to keep all my undergarments on (I did get butterflies and almost chickened out from talking to them, but somehow pulled it together and held a decent level of conversation). However, from a comment about fat fingers, came the opportunity to design and make each of the band members a custom piece of jewellery.

What??!! I know! Sounds crazy right! Who actually gets to meet their favourite band and make custom bling for them? This little jeweller, that’s who.

Let me introduce you…

See why I got nervous? BABE TOWN!

L to R:

Mike Duce (vocals and guitar)

Declan Hart (bass)

Eddy Thrower (drums)

Ben Sansom (lead guitar)

Lower Than Atlantis came to Australia, for the second time, in October 2015, supporting Aussie band, Hands Like Houses at The Newtown Social Club. My friend Tim, a fellow LTA fan came with me. We were pumped! On route to the venue we had a conversation about how cool it would be to hang out with the guys after the show and get to know them. I guess you never really think that will happen, but you kind of hope it will. Then no sooner had I finished gushing over how hot Ben is and how much I hoped they would play ‘Damn Nation’ and ‘Get Over it’, they were standing in front of us at a kebab shop next to Newtown Social Club.

Trying to act as casual as possible (and failing miserably), we struck up a conversation with the guys. Thankfully Tim is the coolest cat in town and stopped me from making a fool of myself. Beers flowed, admiration levels soared, the show absolutely rocked and my little heart was filled with joy seeing my favourite band play live with a great friend who loved their tunes just as much.

We ended up talking the night away with the guys, getting to know them and the dynamics of life in a rock band. It’s funny how we seem to forget famous people are still just normal regular humans with cool jobs. During these chats, Mike’s hands became a hot topic, probably because of his new tattoos and he commented how fat his fingers are, saying he can never find rings to fit them. Well wasn’t this a case of right place at the right time.

Boy has fat fingers and can’t find rings to fit them.

Girl is a jeweller who has the skills to make rings to fit fat fingers.

The rest of the boys overheard this conversation and wanted custom pieces made for them also. Business cards were handed out, Instagram stalking began and ideas started developing. Such a fun project to design jewellery just for fun for people you admire so much who you are beginning to understand as individuals without their instruments.

I had a couple of months before I would be heading to the UK for a wedding and delivering the jewellery to the boys. These are the results and the concepts behind them:

Mike

Handsome, tattoo covered lad with a quick wit, humorous, charming, no tolerance for bullshit and says what he thinks. Wanted a dirty silver ring with skulls.

Photo credit- @Iamshootermcgavin @mikeduce

And this is the end result.

Titled First Of Many as this ring was the very first piece of jewellery to ever be stamped with the Amy Rad Jewellery logo. My hallmark  stamp arrived from the USA a few days before I left for the UK and this massive ring was the lucky piece to be number one. A pretty special moment for any jeweller.

Dec

Handsome, funny, hilarious, best Alf Stewart impersonation on the planet, entertaining, cheeky, fun. This guy made me laugh so much my face hurt.

Photo credit- @declta @Iamshootermcgavin @jordangreen

I couldn’t resist to make him this

 

Eddy

Handsome, stylish, quiet, considered, attention to detail, mature, the solid beat that keeps the boys in time. The ‘rock’ of the group.

Photo credit- @eddylta @Iamshootermcgavin  @jordangreen

For this reason, I made Eddy one of my Rock Pedants. Stylish and simple.

Ben

Handsome, talented, fun, sweet, friendly, engaging,  owns the stage, the all around nice guy you just want to be around. Ben was after an anchor of some kind.

Photo credit- @jordangreen and @benlta

“Anchors away as I set sail”.

Everyday I listen to the music these boys make. I sit in my jewellery studio, loudly belting out their lyrics as I file metal and drill holes and make things shiny. To think I would meet them, they would be such stand-up lads, we would stay in touch and I would create custom pieces for them all while listening to the awesome music they made for my (and everyone else’s) listening pleasure. It blows my mind!

In a world where we crave fame and use its power to generate likes, followers, sales and false meaning, the authenticity of this encounter, the simple truth in the love of music and admiration for fellow creatives makes me smile from ear to ear.

Life can be really sweet sometimes.

Note: All images of band members are from their Instagram accounts. I do not own the rights to these images and can remove them if this creates any issues. Apologies in advance should this be the case. All jewellery images are owned by Amy Rad Jewellery.