European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 15, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday March 15, 1986 the stars and stripes Page 17 designer baubles viewed As Art jewels Robert Lee Morris does t mind saying Nve a ways been an  Morris designs jewelry As Art and last year his work did $3.5 million Worth of business. By Melissa Sones United press International nobody expects to make killing designing jewelry As Art unless it s Robert Lee Morris who does t mind saying i veal ways been an  since creating jewelry for designer Donna Karan s enormously successful premiere collections Morris business in new York City is booming to the tune of nearly $3.5 million in the past year. We be always had steady growth says Morris who opened Arthear his first Soho jewelry gallery in 1978. But 85 was astounding the kind of growth that s  expanding at Breakneck Pace says Morris has its risks. First his production staff has gone from 12 to 37 to meet nearly $150,000 in monthly wholesale orders for the Donna Karan collection. Meanwhile there in t a single Square foot of production space left says Morris. At the same time i just got a Call from my business partner in Europe he continues. He s just secured the most desirable space for the first Robert Lee Morris shop in Dusseldorf. As soon As that opens Well go ahead with Paris and maybe  Morris launched a second Soho Arthear boutique last june a spectacular Granite and Glass gallery dotted with trademark plaster torsos on which jewelry by a Range of designers is displayed. Three months ago he installed an Arthear shop in Uptown new York s imposing new at & t building. And in january he signed an agreement with Neiman Marcus for Robert Lee Morris boutiques in six stores. Finally he says giant retailers Are supporting him. Despite the Art wears retailing is Morris second calling. His first and the one that brought him the glamorous and eccentric cult following that jammed the at & t building for Arthear s recent opening is jewelry design. Morris style is recognizable and logical. His inspiration is anthropology evident in the Green patinas and Orange oxides he uses on the discs darts and triangles that make up what he Calls the vocabulary of his work. Over the years Morris has both witnessed and influenced a growing Public acceptance of jewelry made from non precious metals like Silver Bronze and brass at Steep Price tags As Well As of the concept of jewelry As Art. That s basically what the fun part has been Over the last eight years says Morris the promoting of non precious jewelry with precious Price tags. It s the same As Selling  like Art says Morris value is not in actual materials used say $20 Worth of beads but in the development of the artist s  so Morris will appear in his first new York times Adas he has already done in Andy Warhol s interview Magazine. Non precious pieces in brass Bronze or Silver Range from $60 for earrings to $3,500 for one of a kind works. Uptown where Morris translates his shapes into precious metals prices run to $9,500 for a segmented 18-Karat Gold Collar. Morris knows that precious metals not usual Morris materials Are All the better to compete with nearby Cartier and Harry Winston. Indeed the growing popularity of jewelry As Art can be seen in the fact that Morris s first attempt at an Uptown shop on Madison Avenue in 1977. Failed. Nine years later an Uptown shop is succeeding. The Uptown people looked at us like we were crazy he says of his first attempt but the minute we moved downtown to Soho we were in our element where new adventurous Avant Garde work was  today he says he is no longer a downtown concept misplaced  now that we re More mainstream As you say opening up at the at & t Arcade makes a lot of sense. It really is Competition for jewelry stores like Cartier despite past collections for Karl Lagerfeld Calvin Klein and Geoffrey Beene Morris Alliance with Donna Karan gave him his big boost. It Marks the first time a clothing designer has packaged and sold jewelry seen on the runway along with the clothing. As a package Karan s sleek sophisticated body hugging clothes worn for Spring with Morris s brushed Silver pearls Large Alpha cuff bracelets and spiral earrings and pins Are starting to show up All Over new York. It s very much a look of this time period offers Morris. The super clean clothing and the jewelry that finishes the look and blends it All  to those who Don t Trust the mix of opportunist and artist Morris says i happen to be a visual artist but i also have other talents. They can be very much a symbiotic relationship in that the Way i construct my collections is not a whole lot unlike the Way i Structure my business plans. There is a certain amount of logic the Way things Are done whether those things Are to follow through a design pattern or follow through a merchandising  Erma Bombeck very couple of years or so a Dearest Book appears on the Best seller list from a less than Happy child who figures the world will be Richer if they share their misery. The Volley of words take dead aim against a Parent who has attained some stature in the entertainment Industry Joan Crawford. Fire one Bing Crosby. Fire two Bette Davis. Fire three my Mother did not raise a fool. I saw the handwriting on the Wall 20 years ago and started to chronicle my own Side of the Story in this column. But there is another Way parents can get in a word before their kids spit it All out on Good morning America. Children have always been desperately hungry for feelings. How did you feel the first time you saw them what did they sleep in where did you take them did you make mistakes did they say anything funny to make you laugh was there any drama in their lives when you worried about them How Little were they i know All about the baby  with the first one there Are three volumes showing the kid frothing bubbles at the Mouth. With the second child there is a picture every birthday for six years. With the third one there is one picture taken at the Hospital with his eyes closed a Rod Mckuen poem and a recipe for Baklava which you misfiled. What i m suggesting is your write your own Book before they get a crack at it. Write the Pride you re feeling on a program while you re sitting there waiting for the curtain to go up on your child playing a bad tooth in a health pageant. How you made the costume and left the velcro cavity at Home on the Kitchen table and How daddy forgot to get Flash bulbs for the camera and that s Why the pictures look like a Steven Spielberg film. Write the anger you re feeling As you sit there waiting for him to come Home at 2 in the morning. Write Why you feel the anger. How you be heard every Siren in town since 11 . And How you care and worry about him and always will. Put Down the terror you feel when one is sick and How grandma used to thump you on the foot when you were sound asleep and say the baby s crying. I la get  have your co author husband also contribute to the manuscript. His clumsiness at first. His apprehension. How his life changed and How he never thought he could feel this Way Over something with plumbing that could t be fixed by running hot water. Grandparents should be an important chapter in this volume. Encourage them to hand Down their stories of their past and How grandchildren gave them a second Chance at immortality. I worry about How passive we have become. We Don t really talk anymore. We observe. We listen. We take notes. We switch channels. We wait for responses from silent computers who Don t know us and Don t care to. Think about it. How can you build a future on silence kids need a firm foundation of history humor happenings and feelings. You can give new meaning to baby Dearest. I bet after Reading it not one of your kids will even think about Topping it. 1986, los Angeles times Syndicate