This article appeared in the August/September 2014 issue of Organic Hudson Valley.  A direct link can be found under ‘Links to Articles.’

Gabrielle Vallarino makes jewelry using natural stone designs that are very tactile and materials that come directly from nature. Her love of creating jewelry came out of a background in painting and working with estate jewelry. She designs each necklace as an individually designed piece that is part of a limited edition collection. “My palette was always very colorful and bold and then I went into the antique jewelry business and I would revise some of the antique jewelry and keep their classic form, but incorporate something a little cleaner and classic,” Vallarino said. “Then I started with large stones, tactile, stones that spoke – their color, their shapes, were just something to behold.”

These themes of nature and tactile objects are evident in all of Vallarino’s pieces, which consist of many different stones in many different colors, all on display in her studio, which is open and filled with natural light. “What I’ve actually done is I’ve nodded to nature,” Vallarino said of her design process. “We’re partners, using the natural stone from nature and then imposing other pieces.”

She also casts many of the stones in forms from nature, such as leaves and pearl shapes, as well as castings made from the outlines of different stones. “I started taking the shapes of the stones that were interesting and casting them in brass,” Vallarino said, describing what initially drew her to the collection she calls brass fusion. “I took smaller pieces and made shapes and incorporated them. The brass I was making has the texture of the stone. It’s metal with stone, which seems, at first, such a hard thing next to something that’s so natural.”

Vallarino makes molds of the actual stones and then casts brass into the molds to get the shapes from nature and incorporates them into her pieces, some of which are all brass casting, while others have actual stones included in the design alongside the brass castings. “It enhances what I’ve made,” Vallarino said. “Some are just brass and some are brass with stone. I love the natural matrix and the veining that stones carry. When I look for stones, I pick up on the color. Sometimes I just let the stones speak and other times I just copy nature.”

Pearls are something Vallarino was initially uncertain about incorporating into her work. They are much softer than stones, but still have the connection to nature that she is drawn to, and she makes molds of them that she turns into brass castings to create very unique metal pieces that retain the natural texture of a pearl. “Pearls were just so soft to mix metal with,” Vallarino said. “It was kind of an idea, I didn’t know if it would work, but it gives it a very Egyptian look.”

All of these pieces that Vallarino has designed fit into the themes of wearable jewelry that is tactile, allowing you to literally feel the connection to nature. “My whole thing is about something you want to wear, something that feels great and something that looks different, something that’s tactile,” Vallarino said. “Even when I wear one of my own necklaces, I want to touch it. I love the shape. They’re almost like worry beads or touch stones.”

Vallarino has also expanded her collection to include letters and belt buckles. She makes brass castings of letters that originate in things from nature, such as rocks that happen to form a letter. She began this collection when a lot of people began making large stone necklaces. “I wanted to step in another direction without losing the beauty of the stones I work with, and I went into molded brass belt buckles,” Vallarino explained. “Then I started carving letters out of agate stones and I have a whole alphabet. It’s the stone itself that has the formation.”

Vallarino invites anyone to her studio to view her collection, which you will be welcome to touch. “I always keep all these things in mind when I’m creating something – the light, the color, how it feels on the skin, how it works with other jewelry,” she said. “I do call upon nature a lot for my impressions and then take it further, if you can take nature further. I take it inside the studio and then take it in my direction.”