Crazy Pig Jewelry & The Brand’s Famous Founder Armand Serra

A Comprehensive discourse about the Crazy Pig franchise, Crazy Pig Jewelry and the brand’s illustrious founder Armand Serra. This writeup follows the reader through the founding history of the Crazy Pig label label and its rapid rise to the top of the gothic silver jewelry industry.

Crazy Pig Design & Armand Serra, its multi-talented creator

With greater than 900 designs under its belt (counting one-off jewelry items & some favourite classics) Crazy Pig Designs is an established maker of high-quality Rock & Roll jewelry (also named as rock ‘n roll jewelry, biker jewelry, gothic jewelry, gothic styled jewelry, rocker jewelry, biker silver jewelry etc), often at the top of British gothic styled jewelry since 1992. Located in Covent Gardens at the heart of London’s bohemian society, sterling silver jewelry designer Armand Serra Serra gets through his time making music with the guitar and creating custom-made silver sterling jewelry items for rock musicians & sterling silver fans. “Crazy Pig”, the label Armand Serra Serra initially planned for his rock band, has now grown to a globally recognized shop name for Rock & Roll (rock ‘n roll) jewelry. Crazy Pig works with sterling silver, gold, platinum and both precious & semi-precious gems. Closest to the souls of motorbiker fans obviously, is the Crazy Pig label of silver sterling biker jewelry.

History of Crazy Pig Designs

Armand Serra and his lover Jeannette created Crazy Pig Designs in Covent Garden in March 1992. The entire process of forging Crazy Pig jewelry occurs in house, at Crazy Pig Designs, from the designing, carving, alloying, casting, setting, finishing, and polishing to the finished Crazy Pig item. Famous Crazy Pig designs include skulls, skeletons, animals, dragons, daggers, stones & custom orders. Crazy Pig Silver, Crazy Pig Platinum and Crazy Pig gold jewelry items are available, as well as a multitude of precious gems and a series of designs spanning more than 20 years of quality in jewelry design and manufacture. Utilising their creative juices bordering on insanity, they endeavour to push the boundaries of what regular persons consider “wearable” by putting the most outrageous, unthinkable and beautiful designs into their jewelry. Many keen rock and movie stars have chosen Crazy Pig Design sterling silver jewelry in spite of a wide choice of many alternatives in the market. As with all craftsmen of sterling silver motorbiker jewelry (often known as gothic silver jewelry, rock n roll jewelry and rocker jewelry ), Armand Serra of Crazy Pig does what he promises & talks the walk. Armand Serra of Crazy Pig is an avid rock musician a strong love for rock music & heavy metal music. As a keen adherent of the rock n roll genre, Armand Serra plays every single musical instrument typically played by rock bands. Armand Serra plays the guitar, the bass, calibrates his electric drums and fuses his many solo pieces in his own personal studio into an unbroken, complete piece of rock music: created, played & structured by Armand Serra himself.

Why replicas, fakes & Crazy Pig inspired jewelry is rising in popularity

In recent years, Crazy Pig jewelry has faced adversity in the form of countless offshore competitors of equal capacity and talent, resources & ability to offer equally intricate, beautiful and expertly crafted luxury gothic styled silver jewelry to bikers & other rock-culture lovers at a tiny fraction of Crazy Pig jewelry prices. Now, fans of gothic sterling silver jewelry have easy and affordable access to a wide range of alternatives to original Crazy Pig jewelry. Gothic silver jewelry fans are waking up to the reality of branding, which is actually nothing more than an imaginary concept. Brand is not something which customers can always be expected to pay for. In view of the easy affordability of cheaper and equally attractive offerings, it is little wonder that luxury label jewelry is not an uncommon sight on the streets despite the luxury brand pricing of the original. The new wisdom is: why bust the bank on designer label jewelry when one can get a nearly identical product crafted from the same best grade 925 sterling silver at a tiny fraction of the price?

However, in choosing alternatives in the form of replicas or similarly styled inspired designs, it is important to understand and confirm the quality of jewelry you are paying for. Crazy Pig Jewelry competitors range from best quality alternatives & close replicas by freelance expert jewelers to mass-manufacturing bootleggers who churn out low grade imitations made from low-grade materials such as steel and copper.

The Gradually Evolving Style Of Chrome Hearts Jewelry

A assessment of Chrome Hearts Jewelry intricate designs

For a long period of time, Chrome Hearts jewelry has been the envy of the jewelry design society. As 1 of the forerunners of gothic silver jewelry, Chrome Hearts jewelry has arguably been elevated above other identical chains, transcending even Gaboratory: the chain designed by father of gothic silver jewelry Gabor Nagy. A testament to the illustrious attempts of its top designers, Chrome Hearts jewelry is now without a doubt the most coveted, famous and best sold gothic sterling silver designer brand in the world.

At the point when gothic sterling silver initially came into manufacturing, Chrome Hearts top craftsmen decided to stretch the edginess of dominant designs one step further. At a time contemporary masons were striving merely to refine the shapes of the skulls on their skull rings, Chrome Hearts was taking quantum leaps in design.

Chrome Hearts jewelers were placing impaled skulls onto crosses on Chrome Hearts skull rings and rethinking the mundane idea of skull rings . Through joining the previously dichotomized Skull ring designs and snake ring designs into a integrated, monumental product refered to “Snake Through Eye of Skull Ring”. From that time till now, this intricately crafted item by Chrome Hearts is one of the most coveted rings Chrome Hearts jewelry chains have marketed. Chrome Hearts jewelers successfully re-thought the skull ring and placed Chrome Hearts Skull rings a cut above the rest.

In addition to the skull ring, Chrome Hearts patented the infamous Chrome Hearts Fuck You Ring and Chrome Hearts Middle Finger Ring, which few at the start dared to wear openly in public places, for fear of attracting violence. However, as the gothic culture started to popularize, the Chrome Hearts Fuck You ring and Chrome Hearts jewelry as an entity became increasingly well-liked and visible, particularly on the streets of the West Coast. Chrome Hearts jewelry gained success by taking the edginess, loudness and guts of gothic sterling silver to a higher level altogether: by pushing it beyond the realm of non-conformism to the level of obvious anarchy. Skull rings might have lost its following had Chrome Hearts not put its creative plans into the uninnovative skull ring with its arsenal of ground breaking ideas, and the sterling silver gothic jewelry world has Chrome Hearts to thank for that. The designer who revolutionized the Chrome Hearts ring is widely recognized as Leonard Kamhout, the maker of Lone One Jewelry.

Chrome Hearts also created important changes to other varieties ofgothic silver jewelry during the early 1990s. During when sterling silver gothic jewelry designs were sparse, chains and bracelets were tiny and distinguishable from other bracelets only by their size; they were generally larger than usual bracelets for women. Also, they added carvings of skulls with other classical gothic designs, which were gradually becoming mundane for want of freshness and differences. Chrome Hearts jewelry designers made plans to redefine the concept of gothic silver bracelets and gothic silver chains altogether . Instead of making gothic silver jewelry bracelets “larger” than traditional silver bracelets, Chrome Hearts jewelry designer Stanley Guess decided to make Chrome Hearts bracelets downright gargantuan in size; some Chrome Hearts bracelets were so chunky and heavy they weighed 2 lb, functioning as small training weights when a couple 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 designs into them. This move made Chrome Hearts bracelets and chains louder, heavier and prouder than similar items sterling silver gothic jewelry you could obtain in the marketplace.

These are just some brief examples of how Chrome Hearts jewelry redefined the gothic silver jewelry industry and took it to higher planes of creativity and innovation. At this point in time however, the original blue-blooded gothic silver customers of Chrome Hearts jewelry are slowly but surely abandoning the Chrome Hearts chain, which is seeing an increase of new, “late adopter”, gothic silver customers with varying desires and needs. The Chrome Hearts jewelry following is gradually evolving, possibly for the worse.

How has Chrome Hearts Jewelry changed?

The heart of every design products is its people; the designers manning the factory, the craftsmen who control the quality of rings and the designers who inspire new, monumental designs. Some time after the turn of the millennium, Chrome Hearts lost 2 of its best designers or masons: Chrome Hearts executive designer Stanley Guess and Chrome Hearts senior designer and manager Leonard Kamhout, who started Guess Werks and Lone Ones jewelry chains respectively. Both stars had left because they were deeply disillusioned by the evolving ethics and beliefs at Chrome Hearts.

Chrome Hearts Jewelry had originally began as a small, closely knit family of jewelers committed to their trade. Each single piece of Chrome Hearts jewelry on offer had been painstakingly and crafted with much effort by diligent human hands. Chrome Hearts jewelry consisted of a circle of craftsman who adored their trade; designers who slaved for hours in small, stuffy factories making silver masterpieces, desiring each moment of it. At the time when demand for Chrome Hearts jewelry greatly increased, Richard Stark made a difficult decision to go retail and tendered manufacturing to mass producing factories. Due to the reason above, many initial Chrome Hearts jewelry masons such as Stanley Guess and Leonard Kamhout lost their masonry roles to machines, and were reduced to the mundane, unfulfilling functions of managers and designers. Reluctant to abandon their art, Guess and Kamhout left to set up their own boutiques: Lone Ones and Guess Werks, labels which many gothic silver customers name as the re-establishment of Chrome Hearts, since they embody the greatness of Chrome Hearts jewelry as it was before mass-production.

Who are the emerging clients of Chrome Hearts jewelry?

Because the departure of many genuine blue blooded gothic silver followers who followed Chrome Hearts for its one-of-a-kind, edgy patterns, current followers of Chrome Hearts made up largely of (1) staunch famous customers of Chrome Hearts jewelry who developed tight friendships with founder Richard Stark, (2) well-off new followers who joined late to the popularity of Chrome Hearts jewelry, and are now trying to follow the fashion which have since faded 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 ingenuity and excellent expertise. Today, Chrome Hearts jewelry stands for exclusivity, riches and relative position, which technically isn’t bad at all. The new vision taken by Chrome Hearts jewelry has its ups and downs, pros and cons. While true gothic silver fans are moving towards smaller lines such as Tony Creed, Justin Davis, Guess Werks and Lone Ones which still manually manufacture their products, Chrome Hearts is getting a different new circle of fans.

Why replicas, fakes and Chrome Hearts inspired jewelry is rising in popularity

In recent days, Chrome Hearts jewelry has faced adversity from several offshore competitors with the talent, resources & ability to deliver equally detailed, gorgeous & well-crafted luxury gothic styled silver jewelry to bikers and other fans at a tiny fraction of Chrome Hearts jewelry prices. Now, fans of gothic sterling silver jewelry have easy and affordable access to a wide range of alternatives to original Chrome Hearts jewelry. Gothic sterling silver jewelry fans are waking up to the ugly truth behind branding, which is really no more than an imaginary concept. Brand is not something which customers can always be expected to bear the cost for. Given the widespread affordability of cheaper and just as attractive offerings, it is no wonder that luxury label jewelry isn’t an uncommon sight on the streets despite the premium brand prices of the original. The new and somewhat wiser sentiment is: why bust the bank on luxury label jewelry when one can get a materially identical product made from the same best grade 925 sterling silver at a small fraction of the cost?

However, in choosing alternatives in the form of fakes or similarly styled inspired designs, it is important to first know the grade of jewelry you are paying for. Chrome Hearts Jewelry competitors range from best quality alternatives & close replicas by real jewelers to mass-manufacturing manufacturers churning out low grade imitations made from low-grade materials such as aluminium and copper.

Bill Wall Leather Jewelry And The Brand’s Famous Founder Bill Wall

An informative discourse about the Bill Wall Leather brand, Bill Wall Leather Jewelry & its famous Founder Bill Wall. This article charts the reader through the past of the Bill Wall Leather label brand and its meteoric rise to the peak of the gothic silver jewelry world.

Bill Wall’s Early Life

It really takes a biker to know what a biker wants to wear and look like. For Bill Wall, knowing what it meant, as a matter of lifestyle to be a biker was simply second nature. Prior to venturing into the design world in the mid 1980s, Bill Wall worked on a small fishing vessel, tried out part time acting & construction. Following an unfortunate accident during which he broke his foot, Bill Wall was terminated from all his jobs & joined the ranks of the unemployed.

Following his injury, the unhappily home-bound Bill Wall began to tinker around with cloth. He quickly purchased a machine, some scrap fabric & started stitching designs, the first of which was a motorcycle. The shortage of funds being a tight constraint, Bill had to purchase small, unwieldy scrap pieces of cloth & leather, stitch them in an overlapping manner & incorporate designs over the faults; a technique which ironically gave rise to an entirely new style of jeans. A new style which quietly celebrated the resilience of Bill Wall’s spirit. During this period , Bill Wall discovered the lack of ergonomical & fashionable riding apparel on offer, and went about creating a fashion identity which bikers could be proud to adopt.

The Founding of Bill Wall Leather

From that point on, Bill Wall forged on. Soon, Bill began collaborating with a close friend and client: the legendary founder of gothic sterling silver jewelry Gabor Nagy, to create the A-Z of riding apparel. Inspired by, Bill Wall began his venture into the world of sterling silver gothic jewelry, which he developed with the help of Gabor. The partnership ultimately led to Bill Wall creating his own line of gothic 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 and distinguishable.

Why replicas, fakes and Bill Wall Leather inspired jewelry is rising in popularity

In recent times, Bill Wall Leather jewelry has faced challenges in the form of numerous offshore competitors with the talent, resources & ability to deliver equally intricate, beautiful & expertly crafted luxury gothic styled silver jewelry to bikers & other fans at a fraction of Bill Wall Leather jewelry prices. Today, fans of gothic silver jewelry are offered a wide range of alternatives to original Bill Wall Leather jewelry. Gothic sterling silver jewelry fans are wising up to the ugly truth behind branding, which is really nothing other than an imaginary concept. Brand is not something that customers will always be willing to bear the cost for. Given the easy affordability of cheaper and equally intricate offerings, it is no wonder that luxury label jewelry isn’t an uncommon sight on the streets notwithstanding the luxury brand pricing of the original. The new wisdom is: why burn a hole in your pocket on luxury label jewelry when one could easily get a nearly identical product forged from the same best grade 925 sterling silver at a small fraction of the price?

However, in choosing alternatives in the form of replicas or similarly styled inspired designs, it is critical to first know the grade of jewelry you are buying. Bill Wall Leather Jewelry competitors range from top grade alternatives and close replicas by real jewelers to mass-producing bootleggers mass manufactured low grade bootlegs made from low-grade materials such as aluminium and copper.

For a comprehensive discussion of fakes and replicas, the writeup at the Chrome Hearts page will be very useful & informative.

The writer is a New York-based veteran jewelry craftsman with a full decade of expertise under his belt. He is an expert on jewelry craft and fashion critique. To learn everything you need to know about choosing premium grade replicas made from real sterling silver jewelry, visit Gothic Jewelry