Lighter Side of Jewelry : With Holograms Adorning Traditional Accessories, Finery Takes on a 3rd Dimension

Step into the Schaffner Gallery of Holography and you’ll get a preview of what they’ll be wearing in the fall--of the year 2001.

Under bright spotlights, gallery owner David Schaffner has displayed state-of-the-art hologram jewelry and accessories that look like something out of “Star Trek.”

There are earrings with three-dimensional images of stick pins suspended in space that look real enough to prick the finger. There’s a bolo tie of a rose that looks lifelike enough to wilt. There’s an eyeball peering back at you from a watch face that you half expect to blink.

“A lot of this jewelry is like looking into a window,” Schaffner says. “It’s like a hole in space with images floating inside.”

Holograms have proven a perfect medium for jewelry because, like diamonds, they catch the eye and change with the light.

“One customer bought a bolo with a hologram and wore it to a nightclub,” Schaffner says. “He was stopped by four people who walked him around under different lighting because they wanted a better look.”

Holograms “read” best under a point source of light such as the sun or a spotlight instead of diffused lighting because the direct light best reflects the 3-D image.

“But you can’t be walking around with a light on your head,” Schaffner says. “The hologram image is elusive. That adds to the character of it. It appears and disappears as you walk around.”

Even in the diffused lighting of a home or office, a hologram image will flit in and out like an apparition. Schaffner suggests wearing hologram jewelry with abstract designs such as floating spirals if one wants to wear the jewelry all the time.

“It will still look unique under soft light,” he says.

A more detailed image, such as a globe or eyeball, is best worn in sunlight or to a place where one can count on direct lighting.

“Nightclubs are the best because they have spotlights going in all different directions,” he says. “The hologram jewelry is going to light up.”

Schaffner has seen TV news reporters wearing hologram jewelry on the air, and a recent “Star Trek--The Next Generation” episode featured an alien called a Borg wearing a hologram eyepiece--a satellite design available in a watch or pendant.

In his gallery, in South Coast Plaza’s Crystal Court in Costa Mesa, framed holograms of ghost-like faces stare down from the walls. There’s a trumpet player, a geisha and a mime, all of whom look real enough to speak. Here you can even bird-watch through a pair of hologram binoculars.

Holograms are recordings on film made not with cameras, but with lasers.

“When light hits the hologram it bounces back exactly as light was originally reflected off the subject matter,” Schaffner says. The 3-D image is so well-defined one can see the pores on a model’s face.

“I had seen holograms on credit cards, but when you see a large reflective hologram it’s the closest thing to reality that could ever be captured in a picture--although it’s not photography.”

Schaffner fell in love with holograms when he visited a hologram gallery in Dallas on a long-needed vacation from his work as a professional pianist. His fascination with the medium grew until “it just evolved into a store.”

While hologram jewelry was first treated as a novelty, some manufacturers have elevated it into an art form.

August Muth of Lasart in Norwood, Colo., is one of the more creative designers of hologram jewelry. He choreographs surreal scenes using miniature figurines that are duplicated in holograms and turned into jewelry.

“You can really see a style in his art,” Schaffner says.

He wears a Lasart watch with dolphins that look as if they’re swimming inside the dial. Muth’s earrings and bolos have dreamlike scenes of couples embracing in space, boomerangs floating around an eyeball, a cow skull on sparkling sand and a guitarist with a television for a head (he’s called MTV man). Muth’s designs are available in bolo ties, earrings, brooches and watches.

Some scenes offer wry social commentary, such as one of a wife doing housework while her husband sits in a chair drinking beer, a television for his head. Beer cans and cleaning tools float in the air. Muth calls it “Personal Foul.”

“His designs have a real Salvador Dali flair. Some are even kind of erotic,” Schaffner says, picking out a pair of earrings with two bodies wrapped around each other.

Schaffner also has necklaces and earrings made from dichroic glass which give off different colors when hit by light. While not holograms, the glass is included in the gallery because “it deals with the manipulation of light.”

“The light breaks into different frequencies--as I understand it,” Schaffner says. He admits he’s no expert on the technological intricacies of light or holograms. He wants people to appreciate holograms for their artistry, not just their technology.

“I want them to get beyond the novelty of it and look at it from an artistic angle.”

That artistry is evident in a shimmering necklace and earrings by Kroma with dangling pieces of dichroic glass cut into small geometric shapes. The pieces appear to change hue when seen in different light or worn against a white or a black top.

Manufacturers of hologram jewelry have not only improved the images in their designs, they’re improving the quality of the hardware. Kroma’s pieces are made of sterling silver. Lasart uses 14-karat gold. Hologram jewelry ranges from $15 for a pair of simple earrings to $200 for an elaborate necklace. Watches sell for $60 and are Schaffner’s bestsellers.

“Hologram lends itself naturally to a watch face,” he says. A company called 3-D Arts makes watches with seashells, star fish, globes, the Statue of Liberty and other holograms on their dials.

“How do they tell time?” asks a mystified customer. The answer: Tilt the watch out of direct light, and the image disappears to reveal a traditional watch face.

“They blow away Guess? watches,” Schaffner says.