TESIA ALEXANDRA

I trained on old techniques — bench work, wax carving, lost-wax casting — and I still work that way, alone, in a small studio in Brooklyn. Each piece is drawn on paper, then carved in wax by hand. The wax is invested in plaster and cast in a single pour of gold or platinum. What comes out is filed, polished, and set stone by stone under magnification. It is slow. It is meant to be.

I use recycled gold and stones with a provenance I can name — old-cut diamonds, unheated sapphires from Ceylon, tourmalines cut by lapidaries I know by first name. Nothing here is interchangeable. Every ring carries the marks of the hand that made it, and the record of the stone in it.

I make jewelry as symbols of love and devotion. Rings for the vow, and everyday pieces beside them — earrings, necklaces, bracelets, quiet bands. Three commissions each month, so each one is finished slowly, correctly.