Materials
Material is the starting point.
Each piece follows.
Sterling Silver
Sterling silver anchors the collection. Its surface holds a cool, restrained reflectivity — subtle, never excessive.
Each piece is finished to a softened polish, allowing the metal to carry light with depth rather than brightness. With wear, the surface will shift slightly in tone, registering time and contact.
Select pieces are offered in a tarnish-resistant silver alloy, chosen for its stability while maintaining the same weight, tone, and balance.
Gold Vermeil
Gold is introduced through vermeil — 18k gold layered over sterling silver.
The structure remains. The surface warms.
The finish is moderated, avoiding high polish — more atmospheric than reflective.
Solid Gold
Select pieces are produced in solid 14k gold.
Unplated, stable, and intended for continuous wear.
Stones
Stone is the origin.
Materials are selected for their internal structure, light, and natural irregularity — formed through pressure, time, and movement within the earth and sea.
Brazilian Agate holds layered bands like mineral records, each line a slow accumulation over time. Herkimer Diamonds from Afghanistan are left largely as found — naturally double-terminated quartz with exceptional clarity, formed in open cavities without constraint.
Pearls from Japan follow a different process — nacre built in layered structure, creating a soft, iridescent depth that shifts with light.
Many stones exhibit distinct optical phenomena — adularescence in Moonstone, play-of-color in Opal, pleochroism in Kunzite — subtle interactions of light within the material that give each piece its quiet luminosity.
Stones are sourced globally, in small quantities, and selected individually or in limited batches. Variation is inherent and preserved.
In select pieces, opalite and lab-created moissanite are used for their optical qualities — opalite with a diffused internal glow, moissanite with a precise, refractive brilliance.
The material remains primary.
The design follows.
Care
Wear daily.
Remove before water or chemical exposure. Store with space. Maintain as needed.
Sterling silver (925) will naturally oxidize over time and may be polished to restore its surface. Tarnish-resistant silver requires less upkeep but can be maintained in the same way. Gold vermeil will gradually soften with wear — these changes are inherent.
A Note on Making
Most pieces are produced in our studio in Woodinville, Washington. Others are made in small batches with trusted partners.
Consistency is maintained through material, proportion, and finish.
Subheading
Each piece begins with the material — singular stones sourced across the world: Herkimer Diamonds from Afghanistan, Brazilian Agate, Vintage Japanese saltwater pearls, their nacre formed slowly over time.
Chosen for origin, structure, and the way they hold light.
There has always been an affinity for stones — objects of time, given and received, carrying history, memory, and a quiet sense of the sacred. Collected over time, passed between generations — a way of staying close to the natural world, and to one another.
In their color and form, the materials reflect a kind of natural authorship —the milky iridescnce of opalite, the luster and glow of vintage nacre of pearls built through time, the dense, reflective black of Obsidian formed in cooling lava, the banded structure of Agate recording gradual mineral shifts. These are not applied qualities, but inherent — expressions of process, pressure, and duration.
Our designs our crafted and curated sourcing stones from all over the world from ethical sources. Used for adornment or frequency, pearls and stones share a universal resonance in the cycle of life. They are reminders of the ethereal essence of nature, in both its processes and expression.
Small batched & Curated
Stem & Stone includes both handcrafted and carefully sourced objects.
Some pieces are designed and assembled in our Pacific Northwest studio. Others are selected from artisans, vintage collections, and makers whose work resonates with our philosophy of material, meaning, and form.
What unites the collection is not how an object was made, but why it belongs.
We are drawn to materials that carry stories—stones shaped by geological time, pearls formed through gradual transformation, and objects that reveal the visible evidence of invisible processes. Whether handmade, discovered, or thoughtfully sourced, each piece is chosen for its ability to invite closer attention to the natural world and the forces that shape it.
Stem & Stone is a material-focused practice. Our role is not simply to create objects, but to curate a conversation between earth, time, perception, and meaning.