A Look Inside Lustre Gallery

171 South Pine Street, Telluride, CO
970-728-3355
www.lustregallery.com

The thing Lustre Gallery owner Christine Reich loves most about her work is not what you’d think; it is not being surrounded by exquisite, hand-painted chandeliers, luminous glasswork or shimmering jewelry; it’s not decorating the floor space with finely crafted furniture or hanging fine-art embroidery on the gallery walls. For Reich, it’s the reaction she gets from her clientele. “I just love working with the customers, watching their expressions as they come into the store and are wowed by the art. I’ve even had a two-year-old running down the street stop in front of our window, and seen their jaw drop.”

Even a child recognizes the resplendent beauty of Lustre Gallery, named after the French word for “chandelier,” but the signature hand-painted lamps are not the only beauty that radiates through the windows. Reich says that people are initially drawn in by the striking chandeliers but that it often takes them a couple visits to discover everything in the gallery, such as Lustre’s unusual jewelry lines. She gets a satisfaction from finding the perfect person, someone who is suited to a certain piece of jewelry, and who is illuminated by the piece. “What’s interesting about jewelry is that some of the pieces seem like they were just made for a certain individual,” she says. “It’s so fun when you find the match … when they look amazing on that one person.”

Lustre is different from other galleries in that all of the art they showcase is functional. You can wear it, light up a room with it, or even recline on it. Most important of all, says Reich, you can also fall in love with a piece of art. “The piece just has to immediately resonate with me. You know pretty quickly whether it’s something you love—you see it and you know.”