SHARI COHEN, Founder of Seals & Scribe, shifted from a distinguished career to embark on a new journey in jewellery design. She worked with the US Peace Corps, and later served for three-decades at International Relief and Development, but that changed when she wanted to create jewels that reflected a unique blend of her global experiences and artistic vision. Here’s her inspiring story of reinvention and creativity as told to Smitha Sadanandan.
Seal & Scribe by San Diego-based Shari Cohen was started as a result of her being drawn to the “elegance, mystery and beauty of bygone eras.” Having been captivated by antiques and heirloom jewellery since childhood, Shari became smitten after acquiring the first of many antique intaglio seals. “My great grandmother bought her own jewellery back in the 30s and 40s, at a time when women did not buy their own jewellery. Our family has always used jewellery as an expression of love, and to mark important occasions and life milestones. So, jewellery was always part of my life, growing up,” she says.
Having studied fine arts at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, before joining the US Peace Corps after obtaining her Master of Fine Art (MFA), Shari shifted gears from the fine arts towards a 30-year career in International Relief and Development as a social change capacity development trainer. She served across Africa, Asia, and the Pacific Island regions: her world travels sparked her fascination with how people used jewellery as adornment and to symbolise their social status.
“It’s their calling card. On my assignments in Asia, I would see people in flashy stuff and then on my assignments to Kenya, I’d see the people in beaded jewels; they have a completely different view of adornment. The colours of the beads, the thickness of the beaded collar – all signified a social standing within the tribe. It was visually quite the opposite of what women in India, or Myanmar, wore; they were bedecked in sparkling jewels.”
In her life as volunteer and consultant, for over 36 years, Shari never failed to notice jewellery no matter where she went. “I didn’t really think too much about the jewellery until I started designing some pieces myself.” She began collecting seals as a way to unwind after stressful overseas assignments.
Seals were quite popular in Georgian and Victorian times, when the art of handwritten correspondence was at its best and most prevalent, explains Shari. Typically, intaglio seals with hand carvings and etchings were used to secure all types of hand-written communication and were made in metal, hard stones, gemstones, and glass. Besides desk seals, smaller seals were set within fobs and hung as ballast on the other end of pocket watches.
Her first fob purchase featured a swan in beautiful chalcedony. She thought it would be nice to take away the little edgings and reframe the fob seals in a way that they became front and centre of the design. “I collected a handful of them because I just liked them. I began sketching out a few ideas as well.”
After three years of collecting and curating a collection of antique intaglio seals, Shari started her brand in 2016. The unique artistic expression in each piece and the incredible level of craftsmanship and artistry that went into hand-carving extremely small yet delicately detailed etchings, says Shari, developed her passion for restoring each piece with a new frame. Grace Lavarro of Jewels by Grace mentored Shari into the business and agreed to list the first two prototypes on her website to see if there was interest in what Shari had proposed. “Grace carried my line for the first two years, then I created my website and went out on my own.”
Initially, the designer made smaller necklaces. “I was a little afraid to make rings because I was new to the process. To me, making a necklace was easy…it fits anyone, basically.” Encouraged by her mentor-friend and clients, Shari began to work with a team of artisans. She made three rings. “Those pieces were well-received, and I kept expanding my offering.” With the pandemic, when her consulting job took a pause, Shari focused her time and energy into building her brand. “My custom business really took off during that time – and at a certain point, my consulting work, that had been the primary career gave way to jewellery design.”
She works with select craftsmen in San Diego and Los Angeles, and other cities in the US, while also seeking out specialists in Europe when needed. Her process, she elaborates, involves thoughtful curation. The pieces are brought back to the workshop where her team begins carefully and gently cleans, restores and prepares each piece for its artistic journey. “Once ready, we use mixture of traditional and modern metalsmithing techniques to re-frame each seal into lush, hand-crafted gold and platinum settings using a combination of styles that are at once both ancient and contemporary.”
These days, with fob intaglio becoming popular with jewellery wearers, dealers and scouts bring new and exciting fob trinkets and intaglios to Shari. Scouting for tiny treasures is her mission now and she often gets the first pick. “Sometimes, I’ll buy online if it is something that tickles my fancy but I’m trying to really not just buy indiscriminately. I try to buy with very specific purposes in mind, and it must be very high quality, it has to be a really beautiful in terms of colour or a stone,” she elaborates on her favourite picks.
Several of the fobs she reimagines are glass seals; some are hard stones and, occasionally, she finds a citrine or carnelian to work with. A new piece, Everlasting Love Hearts and Arrows, listed on her website features a hand-carved seal – heart and arrow – in lab-grown ruby.
“I had an antique version in red that I made into a signet ring and many people loved it. So, I thought I’d have my cutter work on a beautiful quality lab ruby and see how it goes.” She has used four natural sapphire cabochon hearts as accent on the chain.
Shari employs two-tone mixed metal in her hand-engraved silver pieces or hand cast silver pieces that are featured in 14-karat gold settings. Her pieces in all gold are made in 18-karat, but she makes it in 14-karat at the client’s request. “We create the bulk of the ring or pendant in either yellow or rose gold, setting our diamonds in white alloys with patina to evoke the essence of Georgian-era diamond settings.”
Her first collection did not have a name, she points out. Love Letters is the first cohesive, thematic collection Shari has presented. “Before Love Letters, I have been creating one-of-a-kind rings and necklaces in either: signet and modified signet styles (with and without diamond and precious gem side stones), Moon rings, and our Theme rings where we take an aspect of the seal and bring it into the setting design.” These, she adds, were not intentional collections.
The necklace series, Love Tokens and Love Shields, can be worn solo or layered. Her newest gold pendant, Sans Crainte, has an eagle majestically soaring above the ground inscribed with the motto ‘Sans Crainte,’ a reminder to live life without fear. Made from a mould made of an antique intaglio seal in her collection, the piece is hand-cast in 18-karat gold and outlined by a halo of natural diamonds.
Although Shari’s world is now centred around her jewellery brand, her passion for consulting has not diminished. “I am still open to consulting and if an exciting opportunity to effect social change comes up, I’d love to explore it,” she adds.