A Guide to the Best of Southern California : HANDMADE : Paper Bangles

DELICATE WAVES of dots, diamonds, leaves, flowers and abstract designs weave their way around a Lydia Pollard bracelet. A face peers out from behind a corner. One color flows into another. At first, the work is puzzling. Is it made of fabric? Is it hand-painted? Plastic? Actually, Pollard’s wearable collages are made of dozens of tiny bits of paper, adhered to a wooden bangle.

“I love paper,” says Pollard, who collects basketfuls of wrapping paper, magazine illustrations, calendars and catalogues. She painstakingly tears these papers and her own hand-dyed papers into strips, mixing and matching the pieces. The bangles are finished with a matte lacquer that adds to the subtle, Oriental quality of the work. Barrettes, earrings and pins are constructed a bit differently. Pollard approaches these more like miniatures, often using faces as the center of a composition with other related forms or items surrounding it. (Prices for the various items range from about $22 to $32.)

Although she keeps busy supplying a number of museum shops around the country--including the Smithsonian Institution--Pollard does accept commissions.

Lydia Pollard can be reached at LSP Designs, (213) 472-6077. Her pieces can be found at the Craft & Folk Art Museum, May Company, 4th floor, 6067 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 937-5544; Freehand Gallery, 8413 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles, (213) 655-2607; Art Options, 2507 Main St., Santa Monica, (213) 392-9099, and at Art Works, 11677 San Vicente Blvd., Brentwood, (213) 207-0203.