Vicki Ambery-Smith creates delicate and ornate small-scale jewellery and boxes inspired by real and imaginary buildings. Especially attracted to the structural clarity and minimal ornament of Romanesque and Renaissance architecture, she also uses forms reminiscent of the modernist structures of Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright.

As all her jewellery is designed to be worn, and worn comfortably, the three-dimensional architectural structures on which she bases her work must be adapted rather than merely replicated in miniature, with the effect of distancing them further from their original referent. In this way, attention is drawn to the form of the pieces, and their intricate detail and definition. Far more than a representation of a building, each becomes an exquisite study of shape, surface, light and space as Vicki explores the language of architecture herself.

AYALA BAR was born and presently resides in Israel. Since graduating art school, she has worked in many artistic areas from theater to interior design. In the late 1980s, she surfaced as a prominent Israeli jeweler. Her current designs blend natural elements and glass with assorted metals and fabrics to create a rich mosaic, resulting in intricate, limited-edition pieces.

Wherever Ayala Bar goes, her surroundings inspire her. For this creative artist, the universe is indeed in the details. Insights and ideas are collected from sights that, to the average person, may seem mundane.

Ayala's creations draw on over 25 years of experience as a costume jeweler. Today, Ayala is a mature designer, cognizant of the trends in the fashion world but always true to her inner vision. This precious integrity creates the radiance that is Ayala's own signature.

Ayala produces two collections a year in the Spring and Fall that are complimentary to current fashion trends and seasonal colors.

Annemieke Broenink is a Dutch designer with a passion for fashion and accessories. She studied fashion design and has an extensive background in design and sales in the Amsterdam fashion industry. Annemieke has been designing her own collection of playful necklaces and collars – a combination of both art and fashion – since 2004. All her wearable art is produced in her own studio.

Annemieke Broenink is well known as an artist who creates and produces jewelry in rubber which is inspired by traditional lace neckpieces worn in the 17th century. Working with rubber invites her to explore new directions. It’s a passion developing new applications from basic materials which are originally designed for other purposes. 

Thomas Mann has been an active participant in the contemporary American Craft movement for over forty years as an artist, gallery owner and educator.
 

He describes himself as an artist working in the medium of jewelry and sculpture. The primary design vocabulary which he employs in the making of jewelry objects combines industrial aesthetics and materials with evocative themes and romantic imagery. He calls this design system "Techno-Romantic". Though it's not the only design mode in which he works, it is the one for which he and his work is best known.
 

Thomas Mann lives and works in New Orleans where he oversees a jewelry design and production studio, a sculpture studio, a gallery, and an educational workshop space.

Argentine sisters, Marcela and Marina Pascual, founders of mmpascual, create unique pieces and limited series, combining metalsmithing, aguayo, and wool. These traditional materials of their culture, are fused, giving new meaning to the use of these craft techniques.

“We try to make them reflect, in addition to our aesthetic and urban interests, the values of our native people. Our jewelry is nourished by the culture in which it is immersed. It uses traditional techniques, while incorporating new ones, through new materials, new paths, and new thoughts; constantly stimulating artistic creation, without neglecting the trade, which is essential to us.”

If Grainne Morton was to have a spirit animal, no doubt it would be the magpie. Instinctively and obsessively drawn to collecting and hoarding anything miniature or precious that catches her eye, many things you or I would overlook, Grainne has amassed an incredible collection of objects - all destined to find their place among the tales she weaves within her jewelled compositions.

Born and raised in Northern Ireland, by creative and antique-loving parents, Grainne was immersed in and surrounded by the traditional Crafts, Folklore, Music and Fairy Tales of the country. Perhaps it's this beginning to her story that has now imbued her work with it's somewhat contradictory nature? All at once vintage and contemporary, precious and non-precious, spontaneous and ordered, junk and treasure... this could well be a description of Grainne's motherland, itself.

Her individuality, and the expression of that - primarily through clothes, style and the considered presentation of [her]self - is engrained in each piece of jewellery she makes. Each piece, carefully choreographed, the arranging and re-arranging of little objects, and precious things, moved and re-placed until they establish a relationship to each other. And tell a story to the viewer. 

Moving to Edinburgh, Scotland, in the late eighties to study at Edinburgh College of Art was the jump off point for Grainne to become an avid collector of antiques and ephemera. When her parents visited her in Edinburgh, they would go on antique-buying trips for their shop at home in Northern Ireland, and Grainne would tag along. Her collections became her inspiration, and her inspiration became her work.

This use of unexpected, and delightfully juxtaposed, materials is where it all started, and over 20 years later, is now firmly her trademark.

Grainne's work has been exhibited internationally and, in 2007, she was shortlisted for the Jerwood Applied Arts Prize.

Grainne lives and works in Edinburgh, Scotland, with her husband, two children and thousands of tiny little objects.

For over 15 years, designer Mikal Winn has been creating jewelry inspired by the natural beauty of the desert. Incorporating precious stones, and using his own silver soldering technique, Mikal’s pieces are a unique mix of rugged nature and urban sparkle. Every made to order piece is hand-crafted by Mikal, and is truly a work of art. Mikal Winn’s designs have been featured in galleries and boutiques from Los Angeles to New York, London to Japan. Mikal’s original belt buckle designs gained notoriety in 2000 when they were worn by such celebrities as Halle Berry, Britney Spears, and Lucy Lui. He later expanded his line to include necklaces, earrings, bracelets and cocktail rings, as well as glittering 3-D sculptures. Born and raised on a dairy farm in rural Ohio, Mikal now lives and works in the Mojave Desert of California.

High Gloss represents more than 80 jewelers and designers. Here is a sampling.

Those extras that compliment your wardrobe and add to your lifestyle.