Léa Stein (born 11 February 1936) is a French artist and accessories maker, known for her compressed plastic buttons, brooches and bracelets. She is often hailed as "the most notable and innovative designer of plastic jewelry of the 20th century".
Little is known about her childhood, but some sources suggest that she spent part of it in a WWII
concentration camp
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...
.
[World Collectors Magazine, Issue 29, http://www.worldcollectorsnet.com/magazine/iss29p3/] She also trained as an artist at a young age.
Stein entered the fashion industry in 1957 working in textiles, and by 1965 had developed an interest in plastic. She worked with her husband, chemist Fernand Steinberger, to develop a process of layering very thin sheets of
cellulose acetate
In biochemistry, cellulose acetate refers to any acetate ester of cellulose, usually cellulose diacetate. It was first prepared in 1865. A bioplastic, cellulose acetate is used as a film base in photography, as a component in some coatings, and ...
(or rhodoid) and laminating them to form a "multi-coloured sandwich of plastic".
['The Whimsical Jewellery of Lea Stein', Helen Graham, Carter's Antiques and Collectables, March 2002] Each 'sandwich' was baked for a long time, then cooled and cut into shapes. The process could take as long as six months.
This technique allowed Stein to insert different fabrics (such as
brocade
Brocade is a class of richly decorative shuttle-woven fabrics, often made in colored silks and sometimes with gold and silver threads. The name, related to the same root as the word "broccoli", comes from Italian ''broccato'' meaning "embos ...
s and lace), colors and textures into the plastic.
Jewellery
Stein's brooches feature animals, cars, household items, celebrities and people in a distinctive style, sometimes resembling
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
(which leads some people to mistakenly date her work to the 1920s). Each brooch has a name, sometimes as simple as 'Fox' or more descriptive like 'Quarrelsome' the cat. Each design might come in dozens of different colors and patterns.
The brooches were made in two periods: vintage (1969 to 1981) and modern (1991 —). Each brooch has a distinctive v-shaped metal clasp inscribed with 'Lea Stein Paris'. Some collectors suggest that the clasp determines which era it was made in. Vintage brooches had the clasps heat mounted into the plastic; in modern brooches, the clasps are riveted on. Some early brooches had v-shaped clasps without the 'Lea Stein' inscription.
However, other collectors suggest this is not true. The only way to discern vintage from modern is to have an extensive knowledge of Stein's designs.
"Petit peigne décoré d'une tortue en plastique de couleur selon une technologie et un design mis au point par Léa Stein. Cette célèbre styliste parisienne des années 70 ne signait malheureusement pas ses peignes."
The most valuable items in Stein's collection are the serigraphy pins and buckles, a plastic / celluloid version of Victorian miniatures.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stein, Lea
French artists
French jewellery designers
Living people
1931 births