CESAR GODOY

The waters of Lake Chapala surround the Isla de los Alacranes, an island near Jalisco, Mexico. Though mired in controversy regarding contamination, the lake provides a habitat for innumerable indigenous animals and plants.

For this reason, the local Audubon Society rallies to preserve the habitat. Mexico is also the home of featured jewelry designer Cesar Godoy.

APRIL HIGASHI

There is a slow shift from winter to spring in some parts of the world, and the seasonal thaw can be felt as far as Japan's Kyoto Botanical Garden. Established a little over 90 years ago the grounds house 120,000 plants. Japan is also the ancestral home of featured jewelry designer April Higashi.


The painstaking technique of enameling, like other jewelry-making techniques, has origins dating back to early civilizations including the Byzantine Empire, and Rome's conquest of Greece.

Ancient jewelry artists implemented this precision-driven skill of fusing powdered glass to metal as a colorful alternative to gemstones.

Currently, powdered glass from the ethereal hues used in pliqué a jour to the glossy finish of vitreous enamel are used by such jewelry designers as Leila Tai (Lebanon), and Christy Klug (USA) to stunning effect. Higashi also incorporates this long-standing technique in her understated creations.

Raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, at the tender age of eight Higashi had already decided she would attend an "out-of-state" college, and by age 11, upon receipt of a sewing machine as a Christmas gift, she began creating her own clothing without the use of pre-packaged patterns.

In 1990, the energetic 20-year old studied textiles earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of San Francisco.

Eager to travel the world one year later, she dived into the garment industry gaining employment with Espirit de Corp. The experience, however, left her cold when during a company downsizing she was given the option of being laid-off. She took it.

In the interim, Higashi co-founded a jewelry company, Fortuna Metalsmiths, a successful endeavor that allowed her the financial independence to further her knowledge about all things artistic including tutelage by enamel artist June Schwartz.

By 2002, Higashi established her own jewelry company, Shibumi Studio, which not only exhibits her elegant work with enamel, and 18 and 24-karat gold but her companion's, Eric Powell, sculpture work.

Higashi's aesthetic is clean and understated but the gorgeous 24-karat gold, rich colored enamel, and glowing gemstones brings visual depth. Her enamel designs run the gamut of solid pops of color to mosaic blends of off-white, black, yellow, and red.

"I create rich color fields, markings, and textures with enamel. In most cases the enameling process requires a minimum of six firings in a kiln; however, for more complex patterns between 20 to 30 firings is required to enhance depth and bleeding of the brush strokes," she explains.

Something I have noticed thus far with designers from Japan, Korea, and Taiwan is their adherence to delicacy and their lack of ostentatious arrangement. The key focus is keeping the forms basic with simple accents and a quiet lyricism so that the artisanship takes center stage. Here again, highlighting the perfection in simplicity.

"I look to create a simple sense of beauty. I am attracted to the depth, textures, translucency, and bleeding which happens during the firing of enamel. I mark imperfections in the layers to create beauty and balance."
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Photo 1 (top right): 18-Karat Gold and Enamel Earrings
Photo 2 (bottom left): 18-Karat Gold and Oxidized Silver and Enamel Lady Bug Ring with Diamonds

KENDRA SCOTT JEWELRY

The Texas State Capitol building, located in Austin, Texas, is hailed as a National Historic Landmark.

The nearly 130-year-old structure is currently the largest capital building in the United States. Texas is also home to featured jewelry designer Kendra Scott.

CARLOS GONZALEZ

The precise excavation of reddish-brown pebbles from the arid surface of Peru's Nazca Desert reveals etched lines in the form of man, flora, and fauna.

These lines known as the Nazca Lines are over a thousand years old and are believed to remain there for thousands of years to come. Peru is also the home of featured jewelry designer Carlos González.

REBECCA WARD

High cliffs and difficult terrain are characteristics of New Zealand's Fiordland National Park, the largest park in the country. New Zealand is also the birthplace of featured jewelry designer Rebecca Ward.

Upon viewing Ward's eclectic jewelry collections, it was clear that she sets no limit to selection of materials, shapes, colors, techniques and textures.

She possesses an amazing, voracious appetite for exploration. In fact, the Brisbane, Australia-based designer once bravely rummaged through the unglamorous Toowoomba Dump upon her participation in the 2006 group exhibition Flash Trash.

"I had the great fortune to be one of the Flash Trash artists," she says. "It was a fun outing and boy did I find lots of stuff. I liked the challenge of creating artworks from the findings.

I tend to look for the unexpected when choosing and combining materials and the most enjoyable aspects of this is collecting the materials: pebbles from remote beaches in New Zealand, glass fragments from old seaside resort areas, and vintage found objects from junk stores."

Her design aesthetic is unencumbered, and free wherein she takes a smooth, round pebble and makes it the focal point of a pendant or takes the irregular forms of beautiful, blue glass shards from broken gin bottles linking them together to form a distinctive necklace.


Ward's influence by "New Zealand and Polynesian adornment" is highlighted through the pieces' organic form. Here again, this natural aspect is central to her design approach allowing a raw, primal beauty to take center stage.

Pieces made from gin bottle glass, such as the Bombay Shards Necklace, as well as items from her Sunken City Collection, I find particularly astounding. The integrity of the glass remains intact; it is still glass. Its color has not been altered yet a common, broken glass from beer and gin bottles has been made over, recycled within a new context.

Within the context of a necklace, earrings or bracelet the material is transformed, and reborn into a glorious entity. That is just how beautiful the pieces look. What Ward renders through her collections is a sheer testament to the active, living force that creativity seems to be.

She leaves nothing unturned using thread, Bakelite, patinated copper, leather, rubber, sterling silver, and 18-karat gold to bring palpable life to her jewelry. From a creative and visual standpoint, I think it is really daring.

"I am drawn to small objects that have their own histories and convey a sense of place and time. It is important for art to tell a story from the heart and jewelry offers a portable medium for this," she explains. "My wok investigates themes of lost times, environment and journeys."

The alumna of Australia's Queensland College of Art majored in gold and silversmithing, holding a Bachelor of Visual Arts. For the last 17 years, she has continued to hone her spectacular creative gift.

From 2008 to 2009, she served as a tutor at the Brisbane Institute of Art, and Longreach's ArtsWest School of Creative Arts.

In 2003, Ward also co-founded the MoB Workspace located in the Museum of Brisbane, which provides "a space for artists to work and a unique opportunity for visitors to MoB to observe some of Brisbane's premier artisans while they work."
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Photo 1 (top right): Sterling Silver, Recycled Glass, and Nylon Bombay Shards Necklace
Photo 2 (center): Sterling Silver, Bakelite, Amber, Hematite Necklace from Future Fossil CollectionPhoto 3 (bottom left): Sterling Silver, Glass Beads, Freshwater Pearls, and Nylon Earrings from Revisited Collection