It must have some­thing to do with a nest egg. The one I wish I’d been smart enough to put aside since our 401(k) began to molt. Still, there I was review­ing the beau­ti­fully ren­dered work of British met­al­smiths, select­ing three images for my post today, when I real­ized I was in bird land. Self-taught and […]

Cash­mere is the new black in this year’s hol­i­day cat­a­logs. Sweaters, gloves, and hats in double-ply are pre­sented in the stores like fresh apples at the gro­cer; there they are, front and cen­ter, ready to be picked up and paid for. To all these sweet, prag­matic prof­fer­ings I reply with a heart­felt… Bah, Hum­bug! Jewelry […]

What cap­tures the light, enhances color, and exudes bril­liance? A col­ored gem­stone that has been cut by a mas­ter stone cut­ter. This week the Amer­i­can Gem Trade Asso­ci­a­tion cel­e­brated its 25^th anniver­sary of the Spec­trum Awards. Win­ners in the com­pe­ti­tion are rec­og­nized for their inno­v­a­tive use of col­ored gem mate­r­ial and pearls in the categories […]

While tak­ing in the gor­geous foliage that New York is famous for in Octo­ber, be sure to spend a day in the city to see all the incred­i­ble jew­elry exhi­bi­tions that will be ongo­ing dur­ing the month. Begin­ning tomor­row at Aaron Faber Gallery and run­ning to Novem­ber 15^th is: From A to Zobel: 40 Years. […]

Yes­ter­day Sotheby’s New York sold a great piece that rep­re­sents all the rea­sons to love con­vert­ible jew­elry. This divert­ing exam­ple is a gold, cit­rine and dia­mond clip/bangle made by Cartier Paris, circa 1940. As you can see in the image below, the cen­tral motif sep­a­rates from its base and can be worn as a pin. […]

British met­al­smith, Fiona DeMarco thinks jew­elry should pos­sess a pinch of asym­me­try, a dash spon­tane­ity, and move in motion with the wearer as if it were alive. Her Blos­som neck­lace with its hand-forged clus­ters of eighteen-carat gold disks set on wires flut­ters like petals in a sum­mer breeze. Each item in this range is individually […]

It will be a sin­gle wave­length of color for fall, accord­ing to Style.com’s Laird Borrelli-Persson; from head to toe, we will be awash in a sin­gle tone. Thank­fully, this will be a sea­son of sonorous neck­laces, pins, and bracelets that will hap­pily leap onto that mono­chro­matic stage. Design­ers chose a Hud­son River School palette of […]

Neck­laces with a round­ness of rhythm are tak­ing shape on the necks of for­ward think­ing fash­ion plates. Notice how these two exam­ples from Brits Sarah Hutchi­son and Chris­tine Kaltoft use pos­i­tive and neg­a­tive space to define the char­ac­ter of each piece. Hutchison’s palette of sil­ver, gold plate and fresh­wa­ter pearls cre­ates a pastel-hued depth-perception that […]

The intri­cately crafted bracelets above were hand worked by the met­al­smiths of Laos. As you can see from the image above, the pat­terns in these pieces have a lot in com­mon with the ornate gold dec­o­ra­tion of the tem­ples and shrines that dot the pic­turesque land­scape. This type of jew­elry, which was orig­i­nally cre­ated as […]

For those who have not had a chance to see the images from my book, Brooches: Time­less Adorn­ment there is a thought­ful review by Ki Hack­ney at NewYorkSocialDiary.com. Aaron Faber Gallery in New York is host­ing a spe­cial exhi­bi­tion of Ate­lier Zobel, fea­tur­ing the jew­elry of Michael Zobel’s protégé, Peter Schmid, from May 20^th through […]