Marco Polo Designs
About the Artists
Marco Polo Designs is a unique jewelry company, in that each of our pieces typically incorporates the creativity and skills of several artists. Our design approach harnesses these contributions to produce contemporary art-glass jewelry marked by both innovation and harmonious composition.
Claude Cruz is Marco Polo Designs Lead Designer. Claude conceives the overall form of each design, based on artistic inspirations that are informed by careful research into the projected color and fashion directions for upcoming fashion seasons. Many of Claude’s designs are inspired by the ever-surprising and delightful products of Nature. For example, our most popular collection, Mona Lisa, was inspired by the colors and atmosphere of a Tuscan sunset. Claude combines his intensive study of lampwork bead-making techniques (acquired with Founder Jane Barthelemy in Murano and Venice, Italy) with acute observation and design skills, acquired through many years of work as an engineer and scientist. The resulting synthesis of the art and science of glass jewelry design yields a steady stream of jewelry-making innovations.
Claude’s wife Penny oversees the complex daily activities of Marco Polo Designs, including our constant interaction with our world-class Italian bead-making artisans. Penny also develops her own designs (such as for our Strawberry Cream collection), as well as contributing to Claude’s designs. Penny and Claude collaborate closely as a husband-and wife design team. We travel twice a year to Venice and Murano, to prototype new bead designs with our artisan partners. Based on our design concepts, our partners create the bead volumes that we need, exclusively for Marco Polo Designs. This process enables us to introduce several new original collections every year.
Both Claude and Penny studied the complexities of art-glass jewelry making with Marco Polo Designs Founder, Jane Barthelemy. Jane is a talented artist who sang opera as a prima donna in Venice. While in Venice, Jane developed handmade glass jewelry designs to enhance her singing attire. To create her designs, she partnered with the uniquely talented leading glass-working families in Venice and Murano. Out of these partnerships came the ongoing artistic relationships (and the lifelong friendships) that Marco Polo Designs enjoys and leverages to this day. While Jane is no longer involved in daily operations at Marco Polo Designs, she continues to provide inspiration as well as design and business consultation to Claude and Penny.
Claude, Penny and Jane enjoy the support of several talented and original jewelry makers. Liya Kot is especially skilled at designing the important set of supporting beads and pearls that “frame” our beautiful custom primary beads. Liya works closely with Claude and Penny to refine the designs for each new collection, a process that typically takes from one to two months. Lilya Vinokurova focuses on finishing jewelry with top-quality findings, and as Marco Polo Designs production manager, she oversees the complex overall jewelry production process.
This collaboration of contributing artists and artisans results in magnificent art-glass jewelry that embodies not only design innovation, but also uncompromising quality and substantial handmade production capacity. We maintain an unfailing focus on delighting the wearers of our jewelry, as well as on supporting the leading galleries and jewelers who retail our jewelry. These traits make Marco Polo Designs a unique studio.