Jewelry connects us to the past through material, craft, and the meanings people attach to the objects they wear. My work is part of that long tradition, carrying ancient forms and techniques into the present.

Research and Design

My work begins with the study of ancient jewelry. Drawing on my background in archaeology, I examine objects in museum collections and archaeological publications to understand how they were made and what they meant within their historical context. Excavation reports, scholarly research, and ancient texts help me look beyond a single piece of jewelry to the people and cultures that produced, valued, and wore it.

Examining ancient Sumerian beaded necklaces during a research visit to the Penn Museum

Sometimes that research leads me to reconstruct a particular goldsmithing technique. Other times, I follow a motif or method across cultures and centuries, tracing the ways it was adapted and passed down. My aim is not to reproduce ancient jewelry exactly, but to carry these forms and techniques forward through my own work.

Relief showing goldsmiths weighing and smelting gold to make collars and jewelry, tomb of Mereruka, Saqqara, Egypt, ca. 2349 BCE (Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago)

Materials and Techniques

The high-karat gold I use is fundamental to this continuity. I create my own 22-karat and 20-karat gold alloys, similar in composition to gold alloys used by ancient Mediterranean goldsmiths. The softness and malleability of high-karat gold make it particularly suited to techniques like granulation and chain weaving – the same techniques I use to make my jewelry today.

My alloying process begins with carefully weighing 24-karat gold grains from a refinery in New York City's Diamond District together with small amounts of fine silver and pure copper. I then use a torch to melt and combine the metals in a handheld crucible.

Once the metals are combined, I pour the molten gold from the crucible into a mold to form an ingot of 22k gold. I also alloy 20k gold, which is stronger, for elements such as ring shanks, clasps, ear wires, and bails. Both are considered high-karat gold because of their high proportion of pure gold: 22k is approximately 92% gold while 20k is approximately 83%.

The next step is to forge the ingot, strengthening and shaping the gold before forming it into sheet and wire. Forging metal with a hammer and anvil is one of the most fundamental practices in goldsmithing, and one that has changed remarkably little over thousands of years.

After forging, I form the ingot into the sheet and wire from which my jewelry is made. To create sheet, I repeatedly anneal, or soften, the gold and pass it through a rolling mill until it reaches the required thickness. To make wire, I anneal and shape the gold before drawing it through successively smaller holes in a drawplate until it reaches the precise shape and diameter I need. 

From these raw materials, I make the individual components of each piece by hand: granules in varying sizes, bezels shaped for each unique stone, ring bands, ear wires, clasps, bails, and other connecting elements. The components are then fused or soldered together as appropriate before each piece is carefully polished and finished by hand.

The result is jewelry rooted in both archaeological study and the historical traditions of goldsmithing—a continuation of forms, materials, and techniques that have passed from one maker to another for thousands of years.