New Memoir Dishes on Robert Indiana’s LOVE Ring and Pop Art Jewelry

By Karen Dybis | November 05, 2026

In her new book, Joan Kron tells the never-before-heard stories behind three iconic jewelry pieces, including the famous Robert Indiana LOVE ring, his EAT brooch, and Marisol Escobar’s remarkable self-portrait ring.

Her stories are the basis of The Renegade Housewives of Pop Art (Pointed Leaf Press, $75), a remarkable memoir that comes out in December. Kron will discuss art, jewelry, and her friendships with artists including Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns on Nov. 10 at Books & Books in Coral Gables, Fla.

Kron and her business partner, Audrey Sabol, never intended to become jewelry collaborators, art curators, or change-makers. But they ended up as art industry pioneers anyway, putting together one of the first Pop Art shows in the nation. They also started a separate but just as crazy jewelry business as well, making multiple limited-edition, signed commissions with Indiana and Escobar.

Joan Kron book — *A friend encouraged Joan Kron to take her manila folders full of memories and turn them into a memoir.*

Kron is as engaging as ever at the fine age of 98. In a wide-ranging interview about her life and book, she tells JCK that working with fine artists to design fine jewelry is somewhat like herding cats: They only do what they want to do, and they rarely make anything easy.

But putting together those legendary jewelry pieces, and this book, were labors of love, Kron says. The book takes her extensive files of photos, news stories, and personal receipts and turns them into the ultimate scrapbook—one filled with unbelievable memories and stories that upend conventions in art and jewelry.

“I was about to move from New York City to Miami, and I had this box of memorabilia sitting in my office. My friend Suzy Slesin came over to help me pare down for my move, and she saw the box. That is when she said I had to write this book,” Kron says. “The pictures of that box and all of the file folders inside became the beginning and end papers of the book.… I’m lucky I saved it.”

Joan Kron LOVE Castings — *Joan Kron kept everything from her life in art and jewelry; these original receipts and castings from the Robert Indiana LOVE ring are prime examples.*

The author, reporter, and filmmaker shared the stories behind Indiana’s LOVE ring, his blinding Electric EAT brooch, and Marisol’s self-portrait ring with its enchanting diamond, ruby, or emerald eyes.

Robert Indiana EAT brooch

Kron says she had a goldsmith friend who could make anything, and she turned to him for help. At first, Kron had approached him in hopes of making a compact mirror that opened up and had lights all around it like a Broadway-style makeup mirror. But that project never got off the ground.

But when she saw Indiana’s EAT artwork, she felt the urge to try again. She returned to her goldsmith friend, and he was able to make a three-inch round pin that lit up just like the artwork. NASA helped with the rest—but you have to read the book to find out how. (Come on, we have to sell some books here, too.)

However, the project proved a failure in that only a handful of pins sold despite tremendous publicity around it. Those other pins that were made? Kron says she somehow lost them and has never found them despite multiple searches over the years. Another artist re-created the pin for her, but it was never the same. She says she plans to wear the one she still has to her book event next week.

“I have read that memoirs should contain roads not taken, regrets, and failures. The EAT pin is all three of them for me,” she writes in the book.

Marisol Escobar’s self-portrait ring

Kron says her business partner wrote letters to the many artists from their Pop Art show asking if they wanted to work on a more functional art project with them, and Escobar was one of the few who responded positively.

They met with Escobar for lunch and introduced her to their goldsmith. He told her where to go along 47th Street to get a block of jeweler’s wax and some tools. They got Escobar a book about the lost-wax process, and she went to work.

The process was fraught from the start, Kron says, as Escobar carved her self-portrait again and again, never happy with the outcome. Her cat even ate one of the prototypes. And when she finally got the portrait to where she wanted it, the caster lost it. Of the original 250 rings, about 56 of them sold; each had about an ounce and a half of gold in it.

“How brilliant was that woman that she used her hair as the shank of the ring,” Kron says. “It’s a marvelous work of art, that’s all I can say.”

Robert Indiana’s LOVE ring

Indiana got the idea from Escobar’s piece that he, too, wanted to create a ring, Kron says. It was 1968, and he was doing a one-man show at the contemporary art museum in Philadelphia. Kron says she thought it would be an easy process given her experience with Escobar’s jewelry.

She was wrong. Indiana’s LOVE sculpture required three parts: the three letters that are connected, a separate “O” for its unique angle, and the ring’s shank. All of these pieces had to be soldered together seamlessly. Then, the ring had to be engraved with Indiana’s initial, a unique number, and the 18k gold stamp.

Indiana didn’t copyright his LOVE symbol, and, soon enough, people everywhere—including Revlon—started making duplicates. Indiana was furious at Kron and at the situation, she recalls, but there was nothing they could do. Indiana ended up getting paid by Revlon for the work, but it was a fraction of what he could have made.

Even author John Updike wanted one—but his story ends badly (again, buy the book).

“The appeal of the word, combined with the quality of the product, made it a unique object of desire. Friends of Indiana wanted it. Collectors wanted it. Heads of museums were buying it for their wives,” she writes.

In spite of the cheaper competition, Kron says their LOVE rings did well. She ended up donating one of hers (as well as a Escobar wax) to the Museum of Modern Art, a real tribute to her relationship with art and her own creativity.

Top: Ramona Rosales took this portrait of Joan Kron in 2017 to celebrate Kron’s debut as the producer and director of Take My Nose…Please!, a prize-winning documentary about comediennes and plastic surgery. Kron was 85 years old at the time. (Photo: Ramona Rosales/courtesy of Joan Kron)