Simon Grew, aka August + Pemberton, emailed me about his gorgeous Mokume Gane jewelry line. Mokume Gane is the marriage of two or more metals forged into an inseparable unity. I love the way the metals merge into woodgrain-like textures.

Very unique ‘Growing Jewelry’ by Hafsteinn Juliusson. He uses real Icelandic moss, which needs to be cared for (watered and trimmed) by the wearer.

Via Designboom.

smallthings announced the launch of their amazing new line of jewelry, stone&honey. Each piece is one of a kind and combines Brazilian agate with a delicate geometric design.

Stephanie Simek emailed me about her gorgeous jewelry last week – I could have sworn I had posted about it before, but a search through the blog reveals that it somehow slipped through the cracks! Stephanie is a Portland based artist who combines found objects into her jewelry. I love LOVE the Gold-lined Quail Egg Necklace, which is made from Japanese Quail eggs that have been lined on the interior with gold leaf, and coated in plastic on the exterior for strength. New to her collection is the Illuminated Sea Cookie Pin which back-lights a sea cookie with an LED.

I came across Dapple Grey’s (aka Renee Glastonbury) jewelry collection One Trick Pony today. I love the clever integration of the chain into the design. All pieces are made out of powder coated metal and are available for purchase here. Her website doesn’t seem to be all that up to date, but it’s worth checking out as her older lines are very cool, too!

Lorena Barrezueta just launched a new porcelain line of jewelry – Listen Lady. Similar to her dinnerware line, Listen Lady takes iconic accessories and memorializes them in the more precious material of porcelain.

Via Design*Sponge.

More jewelry! This time from Maison Martin Margiela – clever cocktail inspired jewelry. I love the tab necklace. They are all beautiful pieces in their own kitschy sort of way. Now, if only he would redesign his website!

Via Crave.

Such pretty jewelry from Kirsten Bak. I also admire that Kirsten’s jewelry is made of “fair trade metal” from ecological mining. Unfortunately, the bulk of the fair trade text is in Danish, but I’ll take her word for it!

Thanks, Randa!

Anne Morgan sent over images a while back of her amazing jewelry line “Digital Safe-Keeps” – jewelry with integrated USB drives. She likens them to modern day lockets that allow the user to keep their dearest memories, photographs, songs and videos on them at all times. A very personal story motivated the jewelry line:

“The only thing I want to leave to my children is the memory of my first-born child. Lucia was born on September 6th, 2003, and died 8 days later. All the photographs we possess, and the songs written for her by her Dad, are on the USB memory stick, that is contained inside the ring. Our lives have moved on with another daughter born 15 months on. It is difficult to bring Lucia’s name into everyday life. This ring allows her life to be marked and celebrated. She will not be forgotten from one generation to the next.”

Tom Ferrero is an old friend and jewelry designer/metalsmith. The set of New Zeland Journal Rings captures objects and narratives within the jewelry. Each piece contains the record of an item and its found location, but only through story-telling is the narrative of the individual piece and the collection revealed.