Molly Knickerbocker is a creative. She’s an artist and designer who creates signature jewelry, hats and wraps. Each design she makes is a statement piece. Knickerbocker is one of those positive people who elicit a warm smile when you met her. She is bright and shiny and sparkles like her handmade artisan creations.
“Jewelry was always something I’d done as a hobby. I would gift it to friends and family. I loved to create different types of adornments,” says Knickerbocker, who was working as a massage therapist when she realized she wanted to change her trajectory. “I helped my friend Lauren Bobowski of Lala Jewelry with the production of her jewelry doing wirework and beadwork.”
“[My Love Wins collection] are like little bits of love I send out back out to the world.”
–Molly Knickerbocker
It was during this time her passion for baking — her other love — called to her. She found an opportunity to work as a baking a stage (French for internship) and learned to bake. But life had other things in store for her.
“I came home from my baking a stage. My dog died, my boyfriend broke up with me and my oven wasn’t working,” she says.
She didn’t know what was next for her. Ever resilient, Knickerbocker decided she wanted to do what would bring her joy, which led her back to creating jewelry. She began designing and selling her jewelry to a few shops in Truckee and set up an Esty shop. A turning point came when she started an apprenticeship with Lorien Powers.
“Working for Lorien, I learned silversmithing and metalwork and eventually shifted into fabrication,” she says. “Fabrication is like taking wire and making a setting or taking a sheet of metal to make a backing for a statement necklace or taking strips or sheet of metal strips to make bracelets.”
As she worked with raw materials and metal, Knickerbocker honed her craft. Before Covid, Knickerbocker began working for herself. She set up an online website to sell her designs.
Knickerbocker makes both statement and minimalist pieces. Some are big and bold.
Statement pieces bring attention to the wearer, she says, referring to some of her larger pieces including big earrings that frame the face or long chains with large metal pieces and stones.
She doesn’t repair jewelry but often re-creates pieces for her clients, such as taking a vintage ring and making it into a bracelet for a wedding or turning an antique ring set into a new piece. She offers custom work and re-creation for people, as well as new designs.
Knickerbocker looks to nature, the environment and spirit to inspire her work and creativity. Many of her collections reflect her passion. Knickerbocker is a beekeeper, which is the inspiration behind her Hive collection. Each piece is named after the bees and different parts of the hive or their characteristics. The hexagon-shaped pieces represent the balance of the masculine and feminine qualities. Her Waggle earrings are named such because waggle is a dance the bees use to communicate.
The Gaia collection features jewelry that embodies a goddess archetype and many of these designs sport beautiful patina work. The Love Wins collection incorporates heart-shaped designs and are part of her minimalist collection
“They are like little bits of love I send out back out to the world,” says Knickerbocker of her heart collection.
The rings she creates are equally stunning. Sets of stacking rings and statement rings that are set with lapis lazuli, labradorite and opal. Each is an exquisite piece of art. Knickerbocker fabricates almost every piece of her jewelry.
She also works diligently to be mindful of waste and reduce her carbon footprint while creating her pieces.
“Everything I was buying came in too much plastic. It just didn’t feel aligned with me. I felt like there was a gap in the way that I’m living my life and the way that I was doing my business,” she says.
In addition to making jewelry, Knickerbocker makes custom hats and wraps that are perfect for festivals and costume parties. The vintage hats are bedazzled with beads, rhinestone trim and antique buttons. Made to last, they too are beautiful works of art. She uses only glass beads — no plastic adorns her designs. The wraps are made to be used as headpieces, belts or sashes. She often uses tarot imagery in her designs.
Her grandmother left her a trunk of antique vintage buttons, which are like smaller works of art that she uses for her hat and wrap designs, in essence giving away a piece of herself and her family. | spiritforwardfinery.com
