Dana Driver

For the past decade my work as a jeweler has been centered around incorporating "common" beach stones with precious and non-precious metals and gemstones to create uncommon and expressive contemporary jewelry. I collect "common" beach stones and carve, texture, and inlay them using a flexible shaft motor tool, diamond burrs, water, fine silver, 22kt gold and a hammer hand piece for incorporation into contemporary jewelry by fabrication techniques with precious metals.

Since no two beach stones are exactly alike, all my pieces are one of a kind hand fabricated works of wearable art.

I tumble the beach stones to a soft polish and then hand carve them using diamond burrs and a flexible shaft motor tool. I hand fabricate all my pieces, forging, shaping, and texturizing the metal before soldering and riveting a piece together, constantly seeking unusual and viable solutions to the design and construction problems that arise as I let my work evolve.

Intrigued by mechanical movement, most of my pieces have moving parts that allows for playful involvement with the piece. For example, all carved stones in the Eye Bracelets turn 360 degrees so you may "set your own coordinates" so to speak.