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5 silver designers with a mad perspective
Each year, New York’s Museum of Arts and Design, MAD for short, celebrates the art of jewelry via the “Loot: MAD About Jewelry” exhibition.
PHOTO From Salisbury, England-based designer Helen Noakes is this resin and silver ring (retail $345) that states “Waters Lovely.” The miniature swimmer breast-stroking her way through the blue resin is from Model Railway Shop and is made by a Germany company called Preiser. The designer uses Preiser miniatures in many of her pieces.HelenNoakesJewellery.com
PHOTO Misun Won grew up in Korea, studied jewelry in South Korea, and later moved to the U.K. to earn her master’s degree. Her work reflects both her upbringing and her life now, expressing elements of traditional Korean patchwork through Western fractal geometry. Won’s “Big Flower” ring, oxidized sterling silver with Keumboo (24-karat gold foil), retails for $1,425.
MisunWonJewellery.com
MisunWonJewellery.com
PHOTO This flower pattern pendant by Won is sterling silver and chalcedony ($960).
MisunWonJewellery.com
MisunWonJewellery.com
PHOTO From Salisbury, England-based designer Helen Noakes is this resin and silver ring (retail $345) that states “Waters Lovely.” The miniature swimmer breast-stroking her way through the blue resin is from Model Railway Shop and is made by a Germany company called Preiser. The designer uses Preiser miniatures in many of her pieces.
HelenNoakesJewellery.com
HelenNoakesJewellery.com
PHOTO Noakes also crafted this resin and silver bracelet featuring a polar bear miniature ($675). “I work with silver on a daily basis,” Noakes said. “I love how (it) acts as the vessel for my resin, sympathetically containing, framing or outlining.”
HelenNoakesJewellery.com
HelenNoakesJewellery.com
PHOTO Trained as a goldsmith and sculptor, Hungarian designer Vladimir Péter opened his workshop in 1993 under the name Wladis. The Budapest-based designer uses both new and traditional metalworking techniques to create pieces with a classic European design. This sterling silver bracelet retails for $3,000.
WLadisGaleria.hu
WLadisGaleria.hu
PHOTO Born in the southern China city of Shenzhen, designer Shuoyuan Bai moved to the United States in 2007, when he was still in high school, and eventually earned his undergraduate degree from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. These sterling and reticulation silver earrings from his “The Grain” collection incorporate a wood called purpleheart ($432).
ShuoyuanBai.com
ShuoyuanBai.com
PHOTO Through “The Grain” collection, Bai works to introduce his personal perception of what it means to be Zen, picking pieces of wood with imperfections that point to the life that was once present in the tree from which it came. This Grain collection ring is walnut wood with sterling and shibuichi silver and a rough diamond.
ShuoyuanBai.com
ShuoyuanBai.com
PHOTO Linda van Niekerk was born in South Africa but now lives in Tasmania, an island off the coast of Australia. Her bold yet clean and simple designs have an African aesthetic and sometimes incorporate woods from Tasmania. Her large “Forest Shadow” ring uses Tasmanian myrtle wood with a burn finish and sterling silver.
LindaVanNiekerk.com
LindaVanNiekerk.com
PHOTO Also from van Niekerk are these vintage faux tortoiseshell “Tortoise Hugs” necklaces with sterling silver
LindaVanNiekerk.com
LindaVanNiekerk.com
Each year, New York’s Museum of Arts and Design, MAD for short, celebrates the art of jewelry via the “Loot: MAD About Jewelry” exhibition.
The show, which takes place in October, pulls in jewelry artists from around the world--23 countries in total this year--allowing them to both showcase and sell their jewelry. Many of the designers work in silver and, as such, the Silver Promotion Service has been a sponsor of Loot for the past four years.
This gallery showcases 10 pieces from five designers who caught our editors’ eyes at this year’s Loot event.
From Salisbury, England-based designer Helen Noakes is this resin and silver ring (retail $345) that states “Waters Lovely.” The miniature swimmer breast-stroking her way through the blue resin is from Model Railway Shop and is made by a Germany company called Preiser. The designer uses Preiser miniatures in many of her pieces.
HelenNoakesJewellery.com
HelenNoakesJewellery.com
Noakes also crafted this resin and silver bracelet featuring a polar bear miniature ($675). “I work with silver on a daily basis,” Noakes said. “I love how (it) acts as the vessel for my resin, sympathetically containing, framing or outlining.”
HelenNoakesJewellery.com
HelenNoakesJewellery.com
Trained as a goldsmith and sculptor, Hungarian designer Vladimir Péter opened his workshop in 1993 under the name Wladis. The Budapest-based designer uses both new and traditional metalworking techniques to create pieces with a classic European design. This sterling silver bracelet retails for $3,000.
WLadisGaleria.hu
WLadisGaleria.hu
Born in the southern China city of Shenzhen, designer Shuoyuan Bai moved to the United States in 2007, when he was still in high school, and eventually earned his undergraduate degree from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. These sterling and reticulation silver earrings from his “The Grain” collection incorporate a wood called purpleheart ($432).
ShuoyuanBai.com
ShuoyuanBai.com
Through “The Grain” collection, Bai works to introduce his personal perception of what it means to be Zen, picking pieces of wood with imperfections that point to the life that was once present in the tree from which it came. This Grain collection ring is walnut wood with sterling and shibuichi silver and a rough diamond.
ShuoyuanBai.com
ShuoyuanBai.com
Linda van Niekerk was born in South Africa but now lives in Tasmania, an island off the coast of Australia. Her bold yet clean and simple designs have an African aesthetic and sometimes incorporate woods from Tasmania. Her large “Forest Shadow” ring uses Tasmanian myrtle wood with a burn finish and sterling silver.
LindaVanNiekerk.com
LindaVanNiekerk.com
Also from van Niekerk are these vintage faux tortoiseshell “Tortoise Hugs” necklaces with sterling silver
LindaVanNiekerk.com
LindaVanNiekerk.com
Misun Won grew up in Korea, studied jewelry in South Korea, and later moved to the U.K. to earn her master’s degree. Her work reflects both her upbringing and her life now, expressing elements of traditional Korean patchwork through Western fractal geometry. Won’s “Big Flower” ring, oxidized sterling silver with Keumboo (24-karat gold foil), retails for $1,425.
MisunWonJewellery.com
MisunWonJewellery.com
This flower pattern pendant by Won is sterling silver and chalcedony ($960).
MisunWonJewellery.com
MisunWonJewellery.com
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