NEW YORK – While Naomi Osaka fought through her US Open quarter-final in Queens on the evening of Sept 3, an artist named Kerin Rose Gold was at a gallery in lower Manhattan, anxiously checking the score on her phone.

The Japanese player unleashed a series of exacting groundstrokes to win the first set, then stalled to a tie in the second. Once the tennis star had climbed to a 3-1 lead in the deciding tiebreaker, Gold excused herself and raced back to her studio.

She had what might be called a bedazzling emergency. She needed to encrust a 5-inch (12.7cm) elf figurine with “a few thousand” crystals – and she had less than 24 hours to do it.

Gold, 42, is the artist behind the sparkling Labubu-style dolls that Osaka carried with her to each match of the tennis tournament. Each one was embellished by hand and named to wink at a tennis colossus: Billie Jean Bling. Arthur Flashe. Althea Glitterson.

Labubus – paunchy little creatures with apple cheeks and vaguely menacing grins – have swept through pop culture in recent months. Osaka has unveiled each of hers in a post-match flourish: After her win against Karolína Muchova on Sept 3, she showed off a hot-pink figurine complete with a mini tennis racket.

“This is Andre Swagassi,” she said with a giggle during a televised interview. “He’s very unique.”

He was also very time-consuming to make. Each custom Labubu requires eight to 12 hours of work, Gold said: five hours to 3D print and assemble the 14 components that make up their bodies, followed by at least three hours of hand-glueing crystals. Gold calls the finished product a “Lablingbling” and sells similar ones on her website for US$495 (S$635).

Around 10:30pm, Gold settled at her desk with a plate of grocery-store sushi for a long night of bedazzling. “I’m running on adrenaline,” she said.

Before her were scattered baggies of deep-blue crystals that ranged from the size of sesame seeds to ladybugs. She squeezed a dollop of industrial-grade adhesive onto the scalp of a figurine that she had set aside that morning, just in case.

Using a wax pencil, she applied the crystals one by one until they formed dazzling clusters. When a rhinestone was uncooperative, she used a toothpick to nudge it into place. “I do talk to the crystals sometimes, like they are my friends,” she said.

That is not so far from the truth. Gold started her eyewear and accessories studio, A-Morir, in 2008, after a job in music marketing and a stint working in costume designer Patricia Field’s downtown boutique. Her crystal-encrusted sunglasses took off after being worn by stars including Rihanna and Katy Perry.

Today, it seems that Gold has cornered the market on high-profile bedazzling. She has made a pacifier for Lady Gaga, a New York Yankees hat for Jennifer Lopez, a crystallised cane for Beyonce’s Renaissance World Tour. Tattooed on her middle fingers are the words “razzle” and “dazzle”.

Still, she had no plans to create bespoke Labubus for tennis royalty. In early August, Marty Harper, Osaka’s hairstylist, asked Gold to design rosette clips to complement the player’s scarlet and purple Nike looks for the tournament. Gold agreed and mentioned she had recently been experimenting with her own twist on the dolls.

Osaka was charmed. During an on-court interview after her first-round victory, she showed off Billie Jean Bling to a roaring crowd. “Once everybody saw what a moment that was, it was like, ‘Oh, we need a new one every time,’” Gold said. “And she keeps winning.”

In the tournament’s second week, that meant completing the dolls on a one- or two-day turnaround. The players and tennis-themed names were chosen by Osaka and her team, though Gold said she named Billie Jean Bling.

Ms Carly Duguid, Osaka’s creative director, would pass along the player they had chosen, and Gold responded with images of an outfit she planned to replicate. She would hand off the finished product to a member of Osaka’s team in Manhattan a couple of hours before each match.

Creator Kerin Rose Gold, known for her crystal-encrusted sunglasses and now also for her “LaBlingBlings,” as she calls her bedazzled Labubu-style dolls, at her studio in Manhattan on Sept 4.

PHOTO: VINCENT ALBAN/NYTIMES

At 1am on Sept 4, Gold was still applying bright-red crystals that radiated from the doll’s armpits. She took a break to sleep but was back at it by 9:30am to apply the final touches.

“There’s no room for error, there’s no room for do-overs, and it will be filmed in HD,” she said.

Moving with the utmost care, she drilled a hole in a toy tennis racket and affixed it to the doll’s hand using a single nail. Then she maneuvered a sweatband made from a repurposed hair tie onto the figure’s forehead, making sure not to leave any smudges of glue.

At 2:19pm that day, Gold’s masterpiece was complete. She texted a picture to Ms Duguid, who was thrilled.

The final product, named John McEnglow, was clipped to Osaka’s bag as she took the court at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Sept 4 for what proved to be her final match of the tournament: a hard-fought three-set loss in a semi-final to Amanda Anisimova.

Speaking to reporters afterward, Osaka seemed to be less upset about the loss than the fact that she would not get to unveil a custom Labubu for the final. It was a disappointing end to Osaka’s tournament run, but Gold was proud to have played a part.

“I don’t take myself very seriously, but I take this work incredibly seriously,” she said. “To me, it’s an art form.” NYTIMES

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