One of my long time clients came in to see me after she had made a trip to Europe. She had seen a bejeweled belt buckle in a specialty jewelry shop in Paris, that she was very excited about. She is a collector of fine jewelry, and came to me to help her realize her project: an organically shaped buckle displaying a variety of gemstones.

This was a very fun project for me. I made some sketches for the piece, and then selected gemstones for placement on the sketches. The arrangement of the gemstones was an important design element, since the background was a very simple design in gold.

Pearls have always had a special meaning for me, and I use South Sea pearls often in designs. I wanted to balance the geometry and sparkle of gemstones with the simple opacity and shape of pearls.

The clasp for the buckle needed to be completely hidden from view, but easy to access to unlatch. I split the gold buckle body in half and aligned the halves so that there would be no visible seam. The buckle had to lay flat against clothing as well, so that the structure had to have balance and tension to stay verticle when worn.

See for yourself! It has been a fun piece for my client to wear, and she loves to wear it on a simple gold rope around her waist.