HellkatsLA

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Superbee Love

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  • Sherry

    20:59 EDT, 08.May.08
    Hey Elise, good to have you on MOLI! Hope to see you out and about in LA again soon! There's another Queers show at Safari Sam's in June.. hope to see you there!

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Meet the designer

About the designer
Hellkats L.A. sterling jewelry is a direct lifestyle reflection of its creator, Elise McMahan. The line’s tattoo and car culture are evident in every handcrafted piece.

McMahan, a life-long Southern California resident, credits her mother with her interest in jewelry making, “My mother was fascinated with Native American culture, I was always surrounded by it.” Interestingly, she was also surrounded by car culture, as her grandfather was a pioneer in midget car racing, and McMahan spent her youth at countless car shows and races.

In elementary school, McMahan began exploring techniques, she would make looms out of old shoeboxes and practice weaving beaded designs and selling them to her schoolmates. By eighth grade, she had progressed to making jewelry from found objects. Fueled by the early punk movement, her ‘DIY’ assemblages kept her schoolmates coming back for more.

By seventeen, McMahan decided to hone her hobby and enrolled in a structured jewelry class at UCLA – where she first learned about lost wax casting. Finding a caster in Los Angeles at that time for small orders was very difficult, so she returned to one-of-a-kind wire worked pieces and began selling at craft fairs.

McMahan still could not separate from her roots in alternative and car cultures. By 30, she was the proud owner of two 1969 Dodge Superbees and was actively attending car shows throughout the region. “The convergence of car and tattoo culture was all around me, and I decided to pull them back together in my jewelry. Hellkats L.A. was born.”

The line consists of over 30 pieces, all designs are rooted in traditional tattoo art. Pieces range in retail price from $20-$400.00 and sell primarily in boutiques. McMahan also hits the road herself several times a year and vends everywhere from the MAGIC show in Las Vegas to lifestyle events Hootenanny in Irvine, CA.

When McMahan isn’t creating new pieces, she’s adding to her own personal art collection from tattoo artists including Marc Rude, Kevin Quinn and Eric Hogan, or out on shoots with her Superbee – which has been featured in an Infiniti mini movie, numerous rap and rock videos, billboards and most recently, with Heidi Klum in the trunk for a fashion spread in Spain’s DT Magazine.

Celebrity clientele include Steven Tyler, Heidi Klum, Christina Aguilera and Mistress Juliya.

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