About
Mavens & Ravens is a contemporary design house creating sculptural jewelry through original materials, hand fabrication and meticulous craftsmanship.
The work intentionally evokes the visual language of cloisonné, enamel and semiprecious stones, while creating that effect through materials and processes that are distinctly its own.
At the heart of the work are individually fabricated stones made from polymer clay, selected for its durability, longevity and ability to create depth and dimensional color. Each stone is shaped by hand, painted with translucent clay tinted with archival pigments sourced from France and Germany and selected for their exceptional lightfastness. Sculpted sterling silver is cold-soldered by hand and integrated with each stone.
Although Mavens & Ravens develops collections and lines, no two pieces are exactly alike. Because each stone is individually fabricated and the hand-drawn design is uniquely placed across its surface, every finished piece has its own composition, making each one unique and special in its own right. A wearer can own a piece from a collection while still wearing a uniquely composed and individually-made original.
Additional materials, including semiprecious stone beads and Austrian crystals, are sourced from suppliers with known provenance in the United States or EU or are vintage materials from the founder’s collection, some held for more than two decades. These considered material choices, together with the durability of the primary materials and construction of each piece, support jewelry intended for lasting wear and heirloom-quality longevity.
About the Founder
Melissa holds Illustration and Medical Illustration degrees from Rochester Institute of Technology. A published medical illustrator with more than four decades of artistic practice, she brings a long-standing foundation in art and design to all her work.
After an earlier career spanning technology, design and business transformation, she recently returned to her artistic roots to focus on her indie jewelry brand full time. That executive experience continues to inform her approach to design, bringing together creative exploration with the discipline of complex design, whole systems thinking, problem-solving and execution.
As founder and designer, she leads the creative development of Mavens & Ravens, from the creation of original materials and forms through fabrication and finishing.
She is particularly drawn to clay and silver because neither medium places inherent limits on what can be created. They allow an idea to dictate the form rather than requiring the idea to conform to the material, and their versatility allows a concept to evolve, scale and become something entirely new.