MELISSA JOY MANNING

Oakland, California

Melissa purchases her materials, found worldwide, from only domestic suppliers. Using 14 or 18 karat yellow, pink and green gold, sterling silver, semi-precious and precious stones, hand selected bones and found objects, each design evokes a different emotion. Melissa explains, "I enjoy pushing people's perceptions of 'precious'. I like to question the use of precious materials by using them as elements within a design rather than endpoints of a design".