You and I both love jewelry. I love making it, and thankfully, you love wearing it. Isn’t it wonderful how that works?

There’s a level of happiness and fulfillment I get from constructing a piece from raw materials that I haven’t found anywhere else: The craft of it. Sitting in my studio, spinning my chair from my design table to my bench then my soldering station, turning an idea in my head into something real. Walking into my studio in the morning and leaving that afternoon having made a piece that might become your talisman, your celebration of a milestone or a meaningful occasion. 

Gemstones continue to inspire me, and the more interesting the shape, the better. A unique form creates a challenge and, eventually, a signature – a piece you can’t get from another artist. My Captured® setting grew out of beach walks along the Northern California coast, collecting seashells and beach stones, wanting to make jewelry with them, and figuring out an unconventional setting for odd forms. The result is a crossbar and ball rivet setting I like to think of as the anti-setting, a dadaist statement about what a setting can be.

Born and raised in Missouri, I grew up making mud pies, catching frogs and lightning bugs, building forts, chasing rascally boys around the neighborhood, and sledding down hills. My wanderlust led me to San Francisco in 2000, and I’ve lived here ever since, building a career as an artist. Today, with my son, I tend a vegetable and flower garden in my backyard, hike and backpack in the Sierra Nevada, and look up with wonder and reverence at the tall redwoods. Life is grand.

Thank you for visiting my corner of the world, for being part of my community, for supporting my art. 

-Hilary Finck