Contemporary Jewelry

A silversmith’s bench in Bali, a hammer ringing in the Southwest, a bead trader’s tray in Nepal. Contemporary jewelry is still made the old way, in sterling silver, coin silver, gold, brass, agate and glass, worked by hand in India, Indonesia, Nepal, Italy and the American Southwest. Necklaces are strung with antique trade beads and eye agates. Rings and cuffs are hammered from silver. Earrings borrow the forms of Tuareg, Berber and Himalayan ornament and keep those traditions in daily wear. Silversmithing remains a living craft among the Navajo, in Bali and across India.

Against a white shirt, or in a small dish on a walnut dresser, these pieces carry the weight and warmth of their older relatives. The tradition simply never stopped.