ABOUT THE ARTIST

An alchemist of the finest kind, Maine artist Sam Shaw has an eye for what is beautiful on the beach-and a unique way of revealing it to others.  Coming of age on an island in Maine, he has always been attracted to the shapes and personalities of rocks along the shore.  The fascination was enhanced by a degree in geology, and applied through a lifelong love of art.  The combination of the visual appeal of these simple stones and an understanding of the natural forces that create them drives his curiosity and excitement when working with them.  Combining beach stones with diamonds, gold, pearls and other traditional gemstones, his designs have gained him a following that reaches across the country and beyond.

Having taken some jewelry classes in high school, he added a metals major to his degree at Hartwick College in Oneonta, NY.  Eventually, the latter interest took over, and he went on to pursue a master of fine arts at the Rhode Island School of Design, receiving his degree in 1984.

In a manner of speaking, Shaw is collaborating with Mother Nature, presenting her work as much as his own.  When Shaw designs his jewelry, he listens to jazz-pianist Thelonious Monk is a favorite- with hundreds of stones laid out on the floor.  He arranges and re-arranges the rocks as if working on an obscure puzzle that only he sees.  The colorful imagery, the playfulness and sense of irreverence in Alexander Calder’s paintings, jewelry and sculpture have proved to be powerful influences on Shaw’s career.

“The urge to pick up beautiful rounded pebbles is almost universal.  Many people walk away from the beach with a hard round memory in their pocket.  It is my hope that my jewelry evokes such memories.”

ABOUT THE WORK

Sam Shaw uses unaltered beach stones.  They are not cut or polished- with the exception of earrings which are halved for weight and symmetry.  Most stones are black basalts, red and green jaspers and speckled granites.  Tourmalines, apatite and aquamarines are also used.  Most pieces are fabricated in Shaw’s studio.  The bezels or the band of the metal that traps the stone, is either 22K gold or fine silver.  Linking mechanism clasps, ring shanks and underbezels are either sterling or 14K gold. 

Shaw focuses on the blending of precious and non-precious elements.  He uses pyrite, fossils, Moroccan ammonite, crossed Japanese pearls, azurite from Arizona and cubic zirconian. 

AWARDS

• 1997, The Niche Award-“Balance Brooch”, Baltimore, MD
• 1985, Finalist Fulbright Scholarship, Netherlands

EXHIBITIONS

• 2000 “Precious Metals and Beyond,” Patina Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
• 1996, 1994, 1993, 1991, 1990, Aaron Faber Gallery
• 1985, “Maine Craftsmen Show,” Renwick Gallery,  Smithsonian Institution,”, Washington D.C.

PUBLICATIONS

• Metalsmith, Lapidary Journal, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, GQ, New York Times Magazine