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Introducing Sophie Ratner jewelry.

Today I have the pleasure of introducing you to an exciting new designer and artist, the fabulous Ms. Sophie Ratner.

I discovered Sophie Ratner in what is one of my favorite ways: I opened an email from a stranger and I saw something fantastic.

Handmade mixed-metal pieces by up and coming talent, Sophie Ratner jewelry.Sophie Ratner’s jewelry is characterized by a beautifully lumpy, always elegant aesthetic that reminds me of industrial lace. The light, airy designs feel edgy rather than delicate or sweet, creating a barely-there powerhouse of a look in every piece.

A recent graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Sophie designs and creates every piece of the line herself in her studio. She does incredible things with texture and negative space.

Beautiful handmade mixed-metal jewelry by Sophie Ratner.Let’s hear from Sophie herself:

As a young jewelry maker, I find that my design aesthetic is constantly evolving. To a large degree, my work is based on patterns and textures inspired by the textiles and architecture I’ve encountered through my travels in India, Turkey, Egypt, and Ghana. My pieces are often inspired by ancient sources, but they are always executed with a modern sensibility. Because I am striving for a balance between delicacy and structural integrity, my jewelry often resembles lace. I am always conscious of the negative spaces within a piece and the possibilities they provide for delicate interactions with the body.”

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Two exceptional examples of antique portrait jewelry.

I’ve developed an increasing love of antique portrait jewelry.

There’s something magical about a piece of jewelry that can look back at you – and with antique pieces, the degree of mystery is even more fascinating: was the piece inspired by a real person, or is it an abstract representation? If it was inspired by a specific person – who was it? Did they like their portrait? Did they choose to be represented this way? Who was it commissioned by/for?

I was browsing the SJ Phillips website recently and I found these two examples of antique portrait jewelry. They’re very different, but both spectacular. I decided I absolutely had to share them both with you.

Antique portrait jewelry: A Victorian Egyptial Revival antique portrait brooch in enamel with diamonds and sapphires.

The first piece we’re looking at is diminutive in size – only about an inch wide – but mighty in impact: a stunning, highly-detailed colorful example of the Victorian Egyptian Revival style.

This beauty features a fabulously dressed woman in a pink striped dress and glorious feathered Egyptian-style headdress. She’s in front of a richly colored plique-a-jour background in red and gold. She’s set in a border of old-cut diamonds and sapphires, creating a wonderful color contrast and a beautiful silhouette for the piece. As I said: tiny but packs a strong punch.

With a hinged pendant loop on the back, this pretty little brooch can also be worn on a necklace.

Antique portrait jewelry: Antique gold and gem set pendant with a flamenco dancer by Fuset y Grau, Barcelona, circa 1910. A beautiful example of the Catalan variant of Art Nouveau style.

While the first piece of antique portrait jewelry is beautiful, the second is even more unique. And mind-bogglingly gorgeous, no?

This beauty dates to 1910 and shows a fantastically glamorous flamenco dancer in colorful enamel with a gold bangle and a diamond necklace and hair accessory. She’s so romantic – the roses in her dark, curly hair, the folds of her green gown, the curve of her shoulder as she turns slightly away from the viewer. She’s incredible. And her glamorous frame only adds to the overall effect of luscious, glamorous beauty.

She’s a signed piece by Fuset y Grau, who I wasn’t familiar with before now. Here’s SJ Phillips’ bio on the maker:

Fuset y Grau was a contemporary of Lluis Masriera, also based in Barcelona, and who worked in a similar artistic style through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The two jewellers were amongst the leading representatives of the Spanish Modernista movement which was the Catalan variant of Art Nouveau. Fuset was a craftsman distinguished by his use of ivory, pearls, colored stones and yellow gold in his work. Although there is very little published about his jewellery, Fuset y Grau’s pieces were shown at the International Decorative Arts Exhibition in Paris, 1925.

After seeing this pendant, I’m definitely going to keep an eye out for more by Fuset y Grau.

These two pieces of antique portrait jewelry are both currently for sale at SJ Phillips. All images and info are thanks to SJ Phillips.

 A Victorian Egyptian Revival antique portrait brooch in enamel with diamonds and sapphires. Circa 1870. Antique gold and gem set pendant with a flamenco dancer by Fuset y Grau, Barcelona, circa 1910. A beautiful example of the Catalan variant of Art Nouveau style.Two examples of antique portrait jewelry. The first is a beautiful Victorian Egyptian revival brooch pendant in enamel with sapphires and diamonds and the second is an Art Nouveau pendant by Fuset y Grau.

The Seabeast: a new collection by Lisa Kim Fine Jewelry.

There are so many reasons to wear jewelry. To accentuate an outfit. To carry a loved one’s token. To add something beautiful to a mundane day. Or to feel like a glorious, magnificently powerful badass.

Does the click of your heels against the sidewalk create seismic shockwaves radiating out into the universe as you charge into the world, wielding the strength of your desire and the steel of your heart to do battle with whatever fate throws at you?

Then Lisa Kim‘s newest collection, The Seabeast, is for you.

Gold and diamond necklaces from Lisa Kim's newest collection. The Seabeast. Perfect for layering.Jewelry designer Lisa Kim – also known as the Metal Mythologist – has long been captivated by the mystery of the vast, unknowable sea. These depths are what sparked the idea of The Seabeast:

The sea is where life began. The creatures of the deep are among the oldest life forms on Earth. I always get the shivers when I see coelacanth, monkfish, rare footage of live giant squid. Their kind have been around a lot longer than we have, and they will continue their line long after we go. This survival strength is what I mean to capture in my work.

Imagine that each piece in the collection comes from a mythological sea creature, an ancient being of wisdom and power. No one really knows what this creature looked like but each of us can dream up our version when we view these pieces. The Seabeast is meant to evoke the feeling of mystery and wonder that we experience when we see fossils of animals that went extinct long ago.”

The result is spectacular.

The glamorous tooth ring in gold with diamonds. From Lisa Kim's newest collection of jewelry, The Seabeast.Today is launch day for The Seabeast, so you’re among the first to see these new designs. Some of the pieces are literal, like this incredibly badass tooth ring. With its elongated golden teeth and diamond studded jawbone, this ring is small but impossible to overlook.

Other elements of the collection are more abstract – jagged, toothlike pendants with ripped-looking edges, earrings that look like they could be the scales of some long-extinct aquatic dragon – ways to incorporate a bit of wildness into an outfit fit for whatever the modern woman warrior needs to accomplish.

Several of the pieces feature ethereal opals and glowing blue moonstones, limpid, water-like stones that evoke The Seabeast‘s oceanic origins. A piece of ancient Seabeast, captured in gold and diamonds, fit for wearing to a board meeting, a ballroom, or a battlefield.

The Opal Spine earrings from Lisa Kim's newest jewelry collection, The Seabeast. Opals in yellow gold.Behold the Opal Spine earrings: these beauties are objectively lovely, with their rich yellow gold studded with the opals’ soap bubble iridescence, but the overall silhouette elevates the total piece to a new level.

You can see in both these earrings and the tooth ring above that The Seabeast‘s treasures feature a textured matte finish to the gold, to further the impression that these are pieces that have been weathered by deep water and the passage of time.

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