Brooklyn-based jeweler Andy Lifschutz claims the best design advice he ever got was "to go study in Mexico." Graduating in 2008 from the Sterling Quest School of Jewelry Design and Creation, Lifschutz's taste for expressive, organic shapes and statement-making stones developed with a new expertise in metallurgy.
A Portland, Ore. native, Lifschutz says the inspiration for his glittering creations often comes from less than glamorous sources. "Estate sales, junk stores, scrap yards ... old people dressed to kill, or young people dressed to kill."
Even if his favorite shopping sites are filled with mothballs and antiques, there's something unmistakably futuristic about many of Lifschutz's designs -- a kind of magical, moon-rock quality present in the iridescent sheen of his cobalt-blue minerals or bright purple prisms.
The diversity of his materials lends each piece a unique, handmade appeal. He uses "silver, gold, bronze, copper, quartz, diamonds, wood, bone, leather, cotton -- you name it," all of which are continually recombined and reworked to make something new.
"My work grows as my understanding of life becomes more deeply enriched," says Lifschutz. As a relative newcomer on the scene, we're certain that augurs even more success (and more killer rings) to come.
