Text: Erik Stewart, Sandra Kemppainen;
Photos: Erik Stewart, Rio Grande c/o Saul Bell Awards 2012, Platinum Guild International, Palladium Alliance International, freedigitalphotos.net.
"My mother is a first generation jewelry designer and instructor, so I grew up in the business. I didn’t have an interest in it until my adolescence, when I realized I could take my visual idea and make it tangible.
My first pendant wasn’t sophisticated—it was the logo of my then-favorite rap duo, Kris Kross. It was a fabricated sterling pendant of their logo, a backwards “K” mirrored with a “K” and bail at top.
After getting mad props from my friends, I went back to my mother eager to learn more.
Years later, I explored my own designs and pushed traditional boundaries.
My father’s talent in architecture began to show through my concepts as well.
This is around the time that I began traveling with my mother, showcasing in exhibitions around the country.
I created a small handful of designs finished in 18k gold and gemstones. I was 15 years old when I had my first sale and was hooked by the possibility that I could turn my passion into sustainable income."
Erik Stewart
Erik Stewart Jewelry presents a uniquely personal synthesis of architectural shapes and sophisticated style.
"I am interested in everything, from how things are made to nature, arts, and culture, including architecture, food, dance, music, theater, and fashion.
My process is to keep an open mind and to incorporate my emotions with my senses to visualize an expression. I find traveling and engaging in new experiences to be particularly helpful.
My Transit cuff bracelet was inspired by my observations of cultural diversity passing on the Brooklyn Bridge.
My Gaudà ring design (below) was sketched at Parc Guell in Barcelona, a tribute to architect Antoni GaudÃ. I see visions of designs and doodle wherever I am. Just this year, the Noteshelf app (on iPad) has become an extension of myself.
The Transit Bracelet
Erik Stewart’s fascination for architecture has greatly influenced his design process. My absolute favorite piece from him has to be the Transit Bracele, which won second place in the 2012 Saul Bell Design Award Competition’s Gold/Platinum category. Its creation and design were influenced by the complex network of cables that make up the Brooklyn Bridge. 
After months of planning, Transit, a palladium and 18k yellow gold cuff bracelet which suspends steel cables over cabochon gemstones, was born.
Tha making of Transit began with copper models of the anticlastic form of the bracelet shaped on a friend’s custom-made press. It took three tries to perfect the shape.
With the model formed, Stewart made paper templates of the four cable support braces to work out the correct angles against the anticlastic form, completing the prototype. Then, using the press, he applied anticlastic curves to a 1.5 mm thick palladium sheet, forming the actual cuff. After, he input the dimensions of the cuff into his CAD software to facilitate the design of the two logo-bearing gold end caps, which would be cast.
He made new paper templates of the four braces, traced the shapes onto 0.9-mm-thick 18k yellow gold sheet, and then cut them out. Each was filed and sanded to fit its spot. From the same sheet of metal, he cut two circular pieces for each gemstone setting using a disc cutter, then shaped and finished them.
With all the components for the piece complete, Stewart turned to a laser welder for assembly.
“I considered what I could do to make sure the cuff had rigidity and strength without annealing, and I knew a torch wouldn’t work,” he says. After giving the top of the palladium a high polish and the underside a brushed finish, he laser welded the four gold braces— now each with 35 holes drilled through their tops to enable the cables to pass through—onto the cuff. He then welded on the gold end caps.
With the main form complete, it was now time for the gemstones — eleven 8 mm cabochons in all: two blue topaz, two blue moonstone, two pink tourmaline, two amethyst, two citrine and one peridot. To set each, he laser welded an 18k yellow gold wire pedestal to a gold bowl component, placed one of the gemstones inside, topped it with a gold rim, welded a few times around the edge, and attached the pedestal to the palladium.
After laser welding, he touched up each unit with silicone burs followed by a buffing wheel.
The final step was adding the stainless steel cables. Without cutting it, he fed the cable through a hole in each of the four braces and pushed the end into the end cap. With the needed length determined, he cut it off and tucked the remaining end into the other end cap, continuing in this manner for all 35 wires.
After considering options such as laser welding and riveting, Stewart went with an unconventional solution to secure the stainless wire to the inside of the 18k end caps: aeronautical epoxy. “If it works in airplanes, it will definitely work for a bracelet,” he says.
See more on his website.
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