Turn Me on Design (TMOD)

Sometimes communication needs to be taken to a different level, somewhere deeper and internal, where it can resonate and bypass the typical “in one ear and out the other” method.

Sydney-based designers Georgie Swift and Milenka Osen of Turn Me on Design (TMOD), whose previous Smoke & Mirrors collection featured puzzle-solving jewelry, such as three-dimensional maze cubes and interlocking keys, recently collaborated with artist Andy Uprock for a new interactive series entitled /\poetry in braille/\.

Uprock, known for large floating cup street installations, imparts his Cuprocking vision to this range of sterling silver pieces, with TMOD evolving them into smaller, dearer, more intimate elements. Necklaces and rings flaunting cascading miniature cups and industrial cones are textured with Braille phrases serenely promoting community and integration. Tiered signpost pendants twist to reveal thoughts in English and Braille, melding the two languages into one. And Pagoda-shaped rings, dangled upside-down on chains, conceal poetic streams along the interior.

To view styles and browse purchase links, visit the TMOD Web site.

Finch Metal

Oh, to be a kid again…whipping paper airplanes into shape, exploring the wind with a flying kite, getting colored chalk under your fingernails as you draw hopscotch patterns on the sidewalk.

Metalsmith Jill Antonishak’s designs are sweet emblems of treasured playthings, from tire swings to the helix-shaped slinky. Necklace pendants take form as three-dimensional pinwheels, flat paper dolls, dainty toy boats and intricate ferris wheels. Perfect, perfect little reminders that childhood pleasures need not reside in the past as a closed chapter. Rejoice, wear rompers, live like a kid again, and make sure to get your feet dirty.

To view styles and shop, visit the designer’s Web site.

Concrete Fruit Jewelry

Fruit and concrete probably sit at opposite ends of the contextual spectrum, which is why pairing them together makes so much sense. Take the sweet, soft and colorful and marry it with something durable, creating a vibrant new form filled with depth and longevity, rather than spoiling under the weight of time. If only all perishable goods could be rid of their pesky expiration dates, staying fresh and tasty forever and ever.

Designer Sue Urquhart’s fruit collection flaunts brushed silver pendants inlaid with tinted concrete, and dangled from 16” inch sterling drawn chains. Red strawberries, green pears, orange slices, lemon wedges, a pair of dangling cherries…no matter what your taste buds crave, each selection is juicy good and perfect for summer picnic days.

Visit the designer’s blog for recent work and purchasing information.

Digby & Iona

Sequels, if done right, generally happen because a continuum was necessary to unfurl the remainder of an idea. More to the story, a layered vision, or just simply additional ideas sprouted from the same plane of thought.

Designer Aaron Ruff wasn't done with his Wanderer in a Sea of Fog theme, paving the way for a Volume 2 collection. The recently introduced pieces build on the maritime theme, adding captain’s signet rings to the mix of spyglasses, compasses, and old-world weaponry. We love the antique feel of this black spot ring, with intricate scrolling and fashioned for a two-finger fit.

To view styles and purchase, visit the designer’s newly launched Web site.

Hot Pick: Kimberly Baker Indian Chief Ring

Much like the estimable clothing designer Wendy Mullin, silversmith Kimberly Baker has always drummed to her own authentic beat regardless of what’s happening in the marketplace. Her jewelry line certainly has its loyalists, who recognize that her pieces can be worn for years and years and never veer out of fashion.

Yet – there is something definitely instep with her latest designs which are drenched with Native American inspiration, from the layered feather cuff bracelet to the gathered arrow locket necklace. We especially adore the Chief Joseph ring, a chunky sterling silver adornment that makes a hearty statement, and can be worn with love each and every day.

Available at the designer's Web site.

Best of Etsy: Jill K Davis House Jewelry

This series highlights noteworthy jewelry selections available on Etsy, the mammoth online marketplace for handmade goods.

Certain obsessions are super easy to live with, like an addiction to Kiehl’s lotions, or Carmex lip balm. Other infatuations can be more complex, but no less satisfying, like the one designer Jill Davis has with diminutive houses. Her tiny homes collection boasts sterling silver charms that sit on rings, dangle from chains and French ear wires. Often she includes a tree, because every house should have a yard, and sometimes multiple dwellings are nestled close, such as the Neighborhood Ring shown above.

To view styles and purchase, visit the JDavis Studio Etsy shop.

wear-and-tear Jewelry

If only life's biggest decisions were as black and white as a mathematical equation, with no shades of grey caught in between, and no ideological questions to ponder. Then, it might be possible, just possible, for all of us to reside on the same page, working happily in sync to accomplish greater goals for the common good. Sadly right answers are generally subjective, which forges otherwise smooth processes critically out-of-whack. But what if the solutions actually existed in the chaos? Twists and turns, after all, only remind us that nothing worth having comes so easily.

Similar to the transformation of a sheet of paper from a flat piece to a crumpled ball, Cheung Lik squeezes once harmonious chain links into erratic 3-D silhouettes. Some of the irregular shapes, presented in necklace and bracelet arrangements, have lopsided effects, others are more balanced, but all make a statement. Lik, who previously created amazing jewelry with the Daydream Nation team, has launched her own label, wear-and-tear, to showcase these pieces, along with her signature weaved fabric tape designs.

To browse styles and purchase, visit the designer's Web site.

Zoe Catherine Kendall

It’s the dream, no? To wave your freak flag as high as you can without sacrificing a lick of coolness. After all, there is definitely a distinct difference between being downright scary, and just weird in a good way. Which is what sets apart Zoe Catherine Kendall’s eccentric Precious Creatures collection from other creepy jewelry. Featuring twisting oxidized silver worm pieces adorned with enameled eyeballs, the necklaces, earrings and rings have a surreal beauty to them, much like the world presented in Pan’s Labyrinth. Bizarre, yes, but oh so perfect.

Available at Kabiri.

Kimberley Selwood

The thing about you is, that you never really can be pigeonholed into owning a particular look or style...because that's just downright dreary, and certainly no fun at all. Yes, one of the pleasures of being a woman is playing dress-up each and every day, mixing and matching, and adorning. And so you are always on the hunt for special, yet adaptable pieces that will mesh with your revolving moods.

British designer Kimberley Selwood’s jewelry line is a potent, well-mixed blend of uptown sophistication and downtown cool. Her Order in Chaos collection boasts three-dimensional elements pieces that are lacey and delicate, and Tangled Hearts, an oxidized range, flaunts designs that are twisted with airy filigree touches. The Butterfly Effect presents a bevy of interesting arrangements, from mixed metal rings with an open center to wide cuffs with sterling silver waves adorned with resting butterflies (above).

Available at Astley Clarke. For more information visit the designer’s Web site.

Emily Amey

Beauty, truly spectacular beauty, often can go criminally unnoticed…because it does take a certain type of person to look outside the confines of traditional attractiveness, and appreciate the splendor of an everyday miracle.

Designer Emily Amey positions the spotlight on many of nature’s overlooked treasures, from seaweed to amoebas to swirling vines. Working primarily with sterling silver and 14k gold, Amey’s designs flaunt single silhouettes with intricate detail, such as a crescent-shaped sea fan necklace with a sprawling pattern, and squid hoop earrings that twist and curve in unexpected directions. There are many stand-out pieces from her collection, especially her bracelets, notably the sea fan cuff (above), which exquisitely translates the complexity of the organic form.

To view styles and purchase, visit the designer’s Web site.

Best of Etsy: Elizabeth Scott Jewelry

This post is part of an ongoing series highlighting noteworthy jewelry selections available on Etsy, the mammoth online marketplace for handmade goods.

Many jewelry pieces have a daring flavor geared for nightlife dressing, but the truth is that your social life is just as active when the sun is shining -- lunch dates, museum trips, matinée movies, strolling through flea markets. Elizabeth Scott's jewelry is exactly what you want for your daytime adventures, boasting botanical prints and shapes, some with soft-hued enamel detail. Her pool series has a wonderful relaxed summer flavor, but we adore the petal collection (earrings above) that features hand-cast hydrangea petals with an oxidized finish.

To view styles and purchase visit Elizabeth Scott's Etsy Shop.

Best of Etsy: OctopusMe Tentacle Ring

This is the first post in an ongoing series highlighting noteworthy jewelry selections available on Etsy, the mammoth online marketplace for handmade goods.

The San Francisco seller OctopusMe is obsessed with tentacles, but in a good way, really. She casts octopus tentacles in sterling silver, leaving no detail to the imagination, and then lightly oxidizes the jewelry pieces on the exterior leaving the interior nice and shiny for contrast. Her spiraled tentacle earrings are creepy cool, but we think the ring is the prizewinner. Capturing the suctioned underside of the tentacle, the ring wraps around the finger, enabling the wearer to vary the position of the piece.

View this ring and other styles at the OctopusMe Etsy shop.

Hot Pick: Dream Mullick

A lovely twist on classic hoops, these sterling silver earrings from Dream Mullick are inspired by the New Mexico designer’s travels to Indonesia, as is her entire collection filled with ornate silver jewelry.

Available at the designer’s Web site.

Vesper Jewelry

Never one to live life as a spectator sport, you categorically define optimism, bouncing from one adventure to the next with smiling authoritative glee. And your friends, well they love you to pieces, thankful for a genuine cohort who’s up for anything, day or night, rain or shine. But don’t paint you with a brush dipped in sticky sugar, because you’re no one’s fool…just someone who’d rather not get her hands dirty with self-centered drama. So unsurprisingly you favor jewelry pieces with an infectious playfulness that radiate your live-it-up lifestyle.

Working in collaboration with her main squeeze Jason Sho Green, Seattle designer Jessi Frenkel crafts a light-hearted collection that proves jewelry doesn’t have to be grim to be taken seriously. Let others corner the skull and crossbones market, because Frenkel’s joyful robots, angry totem poles, and delightful storm clouds are right-as-rain objects to adore (shown above are the peacock feather earrings). The sterling silver and copper pendants are created using a production process that entails toner resist etching and roll printing, and then hung on complimentary chains or ear wires.

To view styles and purchase, visit the designer’s Web site.

Yayoi Forest

Flowers, of course, get all the glory, but they come and go too quickly. Which is why all women know that good looks only take you so far, and that it is better to have unwavering strength that can carry you through absolutely anything and everything. Like a tree branch weathering the heat of summer, the cold of winter, the rains of spring. Like a tree branch that remains standing after the colorful leaves and scented flowers have all fallen to the ground.

Jewelry line Yayoi Forest understands the unparalleled beauty of the tree branch, using its meandering form throughout its collection. A blackened silver twig necklace, spiral vine earrings, a gold branch pendant brandishing the word “love”. Naturally, other earthly creatures find their way into the designs, from owls etched into silver pendants to tiny gold birds dangling within a birdcage comprised of twisted silver branches.

To view styles visit the designer’s Web site. To purchase, visit YLANG 23.

Andrea Moore

Your home may be filled with antique lamps and furniture, and you sleep in a four-poster bed piled high with beaded pillows, but that's Black Sabbath on your stereo, not Devendra Banhart. You're an individual, thank you very much, and so your philosophy is to never buy into a whole package of anything, but rather pick scattered pieces that bristle with fusion, inspiration, and originality.

Austin designer Andrea Moore knows a thing or two about fusion, blending tough chick leather and chain mail with earth mother elements like wood and turquoise. Each selection from her Gypsy Born Designs line has a free spirit vibe, but she knows restraint, so nothing seems overdone. Many of the selections feature organic shapes, but we adore the whimsical owl pendant necklace brightened with turquoise and contrasted with a textured chain body…the perfect summer adornment.

To view styles and purchase visit the designer’s Web site.

Lauren Wolf

A living, breathing embodiment of Mary MacGregor’s 1977 hit song Torn Between Two Lovers, your soul craves the tranquil comforts of a calm beach and soothing sea, while your heart aches for the pulsating city filled with grittiness and adventure. But there is room in your life for two great love affairs, even if they are geographically and contextually divergent.

Lauren Wolf, who studied jewelry design in coastal Mexico and now calls Brooklyn home, presents the best of both worlds with her sea collection, an urban-spiced tribute to nature’s most breathtaking compositions. A blackened silver nautilus pendant is paired with a green gold centerpiece textured with a sting ray pattern. Silver Amazona bones dangle from yellow gold chains. A spiked green gold bracelet, textured with a sting ray pattern, is studded with sparkling diamonds. Indeed, the beach has never looked so high-end and refined, yet equally edgy.

To view styles and a store list, visit the Lauren Wolf Web site.