My Helper

Little Man came to visit before we went to Yerba Buena Gardens and Zeum. We enjoy a labyrinth made of hedges, a carousel from 1906 and a 25 foot slide. The park is a stone's throw away from the studio right in the middle of downtown. The perfect way to decompress after a looong day in my studio working on Valentines Day.

Bronze Anatomical Heart

Here is one of my first cast pieces from the early 90's and it is made of bronze, silver with two small rubies. I was very into Frida Kahlo, Mexican Milagros and folk art at the time and this imagery inspired my anatomical heart ring.

Poetry

And it was at that age...Poetry arrived
in search of me. I don't know, I don't know where
it came from, from winter or a river.
I don't know how or when,
no, they were not voices, they were not
words, nor silence,
but from a street I was summoned,
from the branches of night,
abruptly from the others, among violent fires
or returning alone,
there I was without a face
and it touched me.

I did not know what to say, my mouth
had no way
with names,
my eyes were blind,
and something started in my soul,
fever or forgotten wings,
and I made my own way,
deciphering
that fire,
and I wrote the first faint line,
faint, without substance, pure
nonsense,
pure wisdom
of someone who knows nothing,
and suddenly I saw
the heavens
unfastened
and open,
planets,
palpitating plantations,
shadow perforated,
riddled
with arrows, fire and flowers,
the winding night, the universe.

And I, infinitesimal being,
drunk with the great starry
void,
likeness, image of
mystery,
felt myself a pure part
of the abyss,
I wheeled with the stars,
my heart broke loose on the wind.

Pablo Neruda
translated by Alastair Reid

Graduation from Engraving Practice to Real Deal

Today our new engraver, Ben Coulter, started working on actual production pieces after an extensive practice period. He said he just 'got it'--it is a muscle memory thing. One has to have a high level of concentration and you also have to train your body to be relaxed while doing it--you are worried you might leave out a word! Engraving is something that can only be done in short spurts. It can be fun but you can't do it all day. So when Ben is not engraving he is helping out in other areas in the studio. Congrats to our Ben as he sets out on engraving his first real pieces!!

1989

These were some of the very first pieces I made in the late 80's. I found a secret bead store in North Beach called Yone . The owner was an eccentric and artistic soul who had wonderful objet d'art in his window along with a Ruth Asawa sculpture.

I was wearing a pair of these earrings when I went into the very first store I ever sold to, Teliao, on Brady Street. It was next to Bell'ochio where I bought hand dyed ribbons and vintage millinery supplies. The materials inspired me to make these miniature assemblages...not sure what to call them...but the are HUGE. They sold for $80 a pair at retail and each one took a zillion hours to make.

Thoughts on 20th Anniversary Collection

this is a ring from the new collection.

While drawing this collection, I surrounded myself every morning with flowering dogwood and cherry blossoms and was deeply inspired by the turn of the century works of Faberge and Lalique so full of poetry and astonishing detail. I realized that movement was inherent to the butterfly and that the pieces, like a lot of Faberge's work, had to have a magical secret to them-- in my own early pieces I made pieces with mystery such as an anatomical heart ring with a hidden door, a 'Travel Book' that opened to expose a tiny keyhole with a picture inside. This new collection goes back stylistically to my earliest creations in that they are all about the power of the secret.

I think of these pieces as small meditations to be worn together or next to each other. Making the Wedding Dress and Flower Girl necklaces, I thought of the dense silver and gold charm bracelets worn by my mother and grandmother that I played with as a child. Each pendant contains a private meaning, a poem that carries a potency that helps tell the unique narrative of the person who wears it.…. I am so proud of every single piece—they are magic--- and am so happy to present them at this milestone in my life as a designer.

Fiore Necklace

While working on this collection I did many drawings of flowering quince, cherry and dogwood that I had all around in my studio. Quince was the perfect flower in which to hide a poem.

I had thought a lot about how Faberge hid poetic secrets inside his eggs and I felt challenged to make something in this spirit. Each of the 4 outside petals I carved individually from wax . On the sterling version the inside petal is gold and contains the verse from Rumi translated by Coleman Barks.

Esme Earrings

I carved this small piece of moss from a piece of wax and it is articulated on the back as well as the front. It took days and a lot of concentration and many drawing studies. Juxtaposed against the detail, it has a small clean oval where the engraving sits that quiver when worn. These are my favorite earrings to date.

Giles Ring

I think of this ring as a small sculpture. It was a free form experiment and it looked very funky in the wax. We cast it as an afterthought just to see how it would turn out and it became an instant favorite in the studio immediately inspiring the larger Kothari ring and the babies, Katja and Teja. Gold plates are laminated to the ends where the poetry sits and I used rose gold on the 18k version. I think it would make an unusual and distinctive choice for a his and hers set paired with the Kothari.

Treasure

many of the charms on my mother's bracelet move, like this circus monkey.

When I was little I played with my mom's charm bracelet all the time. It was in the scale I loved! The fact that the charms moved, opened and jingle-jangled when worn just made it as fascinating as the story it was telling charm by charm. It was as large as my head, or at least it seemed. Mom just let me play with it agian for this photo...and I have secretely been wearing it a bit...I am having a big love affair with charms right now as a result.

This was my grandmother's gold charm bracelet from the 60's. Each on has a date on the back.

Avalon

When I first started making jewelry I discovered early on that I could engrave very minute words into metal and that a poem worn against the skin was very intimate. It was a cool secret that I had an entire Rilke poem hiding against my wrist. Quirky and idiosyncratic it was like nothing I had ever seen before. I started making one of a kind book pendants that had details, like keyholes with photographs smaller than a grain of rice, and sometimes the odd tiny sea horse under glass.

For this 'book' necklace I hammered the wings out of metal and that is what gives it an Art Nouveau feeling as I used an old world technique. You can see one of the two Rumi poems through the crystal set on the wing. The other wing has a plate of gold that carries two different Rumi poems. I love this piece most of all because it takes me back to the idea of the book --only this book can fly. It hangs open, closes or inside out for a more abstract textural look to the wings.

Mini Majaraja

Vineet is our computer wizard in India and this is his adorable son. He is at a wedding in this picture. I want his entire outfit.

We Snuck In....

my friend Michael and I cooking up a plan...

...and found a treasure upstairs from our studios. They are renovating the late Mayor Phelan's offices circa 1907. I found out that when Macy's occupied this floor they covered up the windows, walls and floors to protect it. The entry doors are curved with glass transoms and the original windows are actually in front of the modern windows that were added later. There is even a full shower off the main room!

detail of one of the columns

James Phelan was the mayor of San Francisco just before the 06 earthquake and later a Senator. There is a secret mini penthouse on the roof that was built for his mistress and I snuck up there as well years ago. It feels like a grand little dollhouse with small columns, a fresco on the domed parlor ceiling that is peeling and there are french doors out to the deck. They rented it out to a photographer and his wife back in the 60's but it has been vacant ever since. It is my fantasy to have them rent it to me for my studio someday.

this is a tiny door next to the normal sized curved entry door....

Phelan saw himself as a sort of Medici of San Francisco who wanted to create a Paris of the West--not a bad plan for a small town ravaged by an earthquake and started with gold rush money. I would love to rent the space for our 20th anniversary 'Vernissage' for my new collection ( I just learned this word) ...but first I will have to see what the building management says about that idea...

Best of the Bay--San Francisco Magazine July Issue

How great to be included in the list!

A Great Note From A Customer

"I wanted to share this picture I took last week while on a vacation in Topsail Island, NC. I purchased this ring during my visit to San Francisco in November of last year. My last two trips there found me at your store choosing a ring. I think it's become a tradition for me. :) I chose the quote both because it certainly fits my feelings about my SF trips, but also because I want to remember that every day is a gift and simply being HERE, anywhere, is a gift.
As I stood staring out to sea, I remembered my ring and thought that a picture with the quote visible would be a neat thing to do.
I thought you all might like to know that to me your jewelry is more than just a beautiful thing to wear on the outside, it's a representation of what's going on inside as well.
Peace and joy to you all!"
Susan