About

Kathleen Nowak Tucci, a Gulf Coast eco-designer and artist, has turned her creative focus to designing couture accessories constructed from recycled rubber bicycle and motorcycle inner tubes and Nespresso coffee capsules. Appearing at Fashion Market Week in NYC Tucci’s designs have landed in some of the most exclusive boutiques and galleries across the United States and Europe.

In 2011, Tucci was juried into the Smithsonian Craft Show, as one of 120 artists the Smithsonian selected from a field of 1300. Her attendance here achieved recognition from the Smithsonian’s Women’s Society and she was subsequently invited to participate in the 2011, 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2021 Craft2Wear event. Only 40 artists, who have already shown in the Smithsonian Craft Show, were selected for the exclusive Craft2Wear show.

Jewelry designed and created by Kathleen Nowak Tucci was featured on the cover of the Vogue Itaila August 2010. The issue, called “The Latest Wave,” featured the theme of water and oil, and was styled by Karl Templer, photographed by internationally acclaimed photographer Steven Meisel, and modeled by Kristen McMenamy. The concept interpreted the environmental crisis that has been affecting the Gulf Coast. This was the first time that an eco artist’s work was featured on the cover of a mainstream fashion magazine.

Some of the many other magazines that have featured Tucci’s jewelry are Marie Claire, Ornament, Art Jewelry, Memphis Magazine (cover), Metal Clay Artist Magazine (cover), Heaven Has Heels (cover), Coastal Lifestyle, Linen Magazine, Making Jewelry (cover) and Polymer Clay Week Magazine.

 Tucci won the 2012 Niche Award in Fashion Jewelry. In 2015 and 2016 she won Saul Bell Design Awards, first place in 2015 and second place in 2016 in the Alternative Materials category.

She is the recipient of the prestigious Design Fellowship from the Alabama State Council on the Arts. She participated in the Museum of Arts and Design NYC Show- LOOT in September, 2012, the BIJOUX Show at the Norton Museum of Art in February 2015 and the Palm Springs Museum Jewelry Show in 2018.  Two necklaces are featured in Lark Publishing’s, Showcase 500 Art Necklaces.