Nelly Mendoza-Mendoza is a New York City–based artist and jewelry designer.
   Working primarily in precious metals and gemstones, she combines contemporary design with traditional techniques, including the Ancient Greek practice of gold granulation.

   Mendoza-Mendoza began working in jewelry at Dartmouth College, where she majored in Economics but spent many days studying classical mythology, architecture, engineering, and astronomy. She received a grant from the Dartmouth Class of 1961 to study granulation and later a Dartmouth fellowship to further develop the technique.

   She continued her practice at Dartmouth, graduating in 2019,  before moving to New York City, where she spent four years in the Jewelry Design and Innovation Studio at Tiffany & Co. In 2025, Mendoza-Mendoza left Tiffany to devote her efforts full-time to her independent practice through Nelly Creative Studios.

   Her work begins with curiosity into the intricacies of the natural world. She is particularly drawn to flowers, organic forms, and celestial and mythological imagery. The allure of a vintage jewel, the romance of a gemstone, the movement of a peony, or the delicate petals of a poppy can become the source of revelation for a new piece.

   Through intricate metalwork, carefully chosen gemstones, and attention to detail, Mendoza-Mendoza creates jewelry as miniature environments. Her work considers jewelry as a form of sculpture.

   The imagery in my work centers on botanicals that carry cultural, personal, and familial significance as a way of reclaiming and learning from my ancestral knowledge, values, and narratives.

   In my jewelry practice, I extend these sculptural ideas into wearable form. The wearer becomes an active participant, entering into a more intimate and bodily relationship with the work. This shift from object to adornment opens new modes of interaction.

  Working in jewelry allows me to experiment with color, surface, and texture in more immediate and tactile ways, expanding how these narratives are experienced and carried. Through the powder-coating process, I am able to build layered surfaces of color and texture, creating a depth that shifts how the work is perceived in light and movement.

   I also integrate natural materials such as antler and horn, introducing organic variation and connecting the work back to land-based material knowledge and non-industrial making traditions. Together, these approaches allow me to move between industrial and natural processes, holding them in tension while expanding the sensory and material language of the work.

 The Michael Michaud Jewelry Collection is a world-renowned collection of botanical jewelry. Capturing the beauty and exquisite detail of the natural world, Michael Michaud uses soft patinas on bronze accented with pearls, beads, coral, and stones. His exacting attention to detail yields true-to-nature botanical works.
   Michael’s unique jewelry is made by creating molds directly from botanical elements in a process similar to that of lost-wax casting. While traditional lost-wax casting begins with a hand-carved model of wax, Michael uses an actual leaf, branch, or flower in place of the wax model. A mold is then created around the botanical element, and, as it is heated, the plant matter burns away and leaves behind a beautifully detailed mold of itself.   

   Cynthia Ryan is an award-winning New York–based jewelry designer whose art and architectural background and modern design aesthetic blend to create a distinctive line of sculptural, timeless, and genderless designs.

  She began studying art in childhood at MoMA, the Art Students League, and LaGuardia High School, later pursuing architecture and art history at the University of Pennsylvania and eventually becoming Director of Retail Design at an architectural firm in New York.

  Her passion for jewelry led her to New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, where her unique three-dimensional approach earned her recognition and the encouragement to launch her own line.

  For over 25 years, she has created bold, architecturally inspired collections in sterling silver and gold, earning accolades, including an Accessories Council 2025 Design Excellence Award for the Astragal Stacking Band; she also exhibited at Milano Jewelry Week 2025.

  Drawing inspiration from her native Manhattan’s architecture, Bauhaus, Art Deco, Georg Jensen, minimalist art, and architectural history, her pieces feature clean lines, geometric forms, and refined architectural details. Each design is crafted in New York City, using traditional techniques and precious metals, resulting in high polished, heirloom-quality pieces. Elegant and fun to wear, the designs offer the creativity to adjust, mix and stack to create a personal statement.