A Guide to the Best of Southern California : HANDMADE : For the Well-Dressed Foodie

“I’M A FOODAHOLIC from start to finish,” admits jewelry designer Hilary Packard. “I love old utensils and have been treasuring and collecting them all my life. Things like an old pie server and an old spatula have found their way into my jewelry.”

Food is her current subject, again with a stylized contemporary approach: spaghetti-and-meatball earrings, in different sizes and configurations, with a lacy, abstract serving of pasta with (or without) meatballs; the ratatouille pin (a green onion with an eggplant, green pepper and tomato slice); the snack necklace, featuring a pretzel, a corn chip, popcorn and a cracker; and the milk-and-cookie earrings (a glass of milk dangling from a butter cookie).

Packard’s whimsical designs are made of stainless steel, brass and copper, sandblasted to achieve the matte surfaces that give the pieces their sophisticated appearance and soft colors. An antique patina is imparted to the brass and copper elements through a chemical process.

Packard finds her jewelry particularly well suited for the California sense of style. “Californians really get what I’m trying to say quickly,” she says. “They’re willing to express themselves and willing to wear something, rather than just admire it in a case.” And that includes spaghetti and meatballs.

Hilary Packard’s food jewelry is available at the MOCA Store, 250 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles, (213) 621-1710; and Lawry’s Gift Shop, at Lawry’s California Center, 570 West Avenue 26, Los Angeles, (213) 224-6800.