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Meet Your Designer, Chelsea

April 1st, 2020
Categorized under: Designers

Chelsea a true artist, in love with jewelry; Explore Chelsea’s design philosophy.

Collaborating with your own personal designer is one of the most unique aspects of custom designing a piece of jewelry at Green Lake Jewelry Works. Our designers serve as artistic guides to lead you through the design process and offer creative insight so you receive a piece of jewelry that is meaningful and personal to you.

Senior Designer Chelsea Knights shares with us her Artist Statement: where she has found inspiration in her career as a jewelry designer and the client stories of her most celebrated designs at the Green Lake Jewelry Works studio. For Chelsea, a custom design at Green Lake is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to share in the creative process as a couple and create the rings you will wear everyday together. She is honored to be a part of your wedding journey.

-Artist Statement-

The Greeks and the Romans believed all artists possessed an external guardian deity, called a genius, who aided the artists in their work, acting as conduits of their inspiration. This psychological construct protects the vulnerable ego from the corrupting influence of praise and the corrosive effects of shame.

When the artist is believed to have a genius rather than be a genius, the artist is distanced from the burden of taking either full credit or full blame for the outcome of an artistic pursuit, and so is liberated to take on more creative endeavors and seek to live as much as possible in a beautiful state of flow.

When I encountered this concept in the writing of Elizabeth Gilbert, I was immediately drawn to it and I wanted to keep it close, reminding me to be fearless in cultivating a creative life. I began working on large-scale oil paintings of goddesses and covering the walls of my home with these paintings.

-Details of Chelsea’s Process-

I explored the archetype of the triple deity in mythology by painting a series featuring the Graces, the Fates, the Furies, and Hecate. I’m now in progress on a new series diving into the archetype of water as the source of a woman’s being from which, like the goddess Venus, she is born, and to which, like Ophelia she is destined to return.

-Thoughts on Creativity and Jewelry Design-

I’ve crafted an environment where I can surround myself with my divine deities that encourage me to take risks and bring creativity to every aspect of my life. When I cook, it’s not simply to provide sustenance. I experiment with novel vegetarian ingredients and artfully arrange each plate. When I exercise, it’s not just for my physical health. I’ve joined an inclusive and body-positive community for dancers all seeking challenge and self-expression through movement. When I work, it’s not only to make a living. My work is deeply meaningful because I have the opportunity to collaborate with couples to help them design and create completely original works of art to be worn for the rest of their lives as expressions of their love and commitment.

I dreamt of becoming a jewelry designer from a very young age, believing jewelry as wearable art to be the perfect combination of the interests I inherited through both nature and nurture from my fashion designer mom and fine artist dad. I earned a bachelor’s degree in fashion merchandising from California State University Long Beach and my Graduate Diamonds and AJP credentials from the Gemological Institute of America. I worked for five years at Mark Schneider Design where I advanced from apprentice to Design Director. There, I designed for the engagement ring and color gemstone jewelry collections, competitions, and custom requests. I’ve won three design awards: First Place Custom Distinction in the MJSA Vision Awards, a commendation and a First Place in the CPAA International Pearl Design Competition. 

Start Your Custom Ring Design With Chelsea.

When you create a Design Page, you’ll have the option to select Chelsea as your designer. Once you’re logged in, start sharing what inspires you and what elements you’d like to include in your custom jewelry design. You’ll then hear back from Chelsea so you can start your jewelry project!

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Chelsea’s Celebrated Designs from the Studio

I’ve been a Senior Designer at Green Lake Jewelry since 2016. I love listening to my clients’ stories, guiding my clients to explore their own intuitions and imaginations, and then helping them to bring their unique visions to life. When they venture into the unknown rather than the known and discover the joy of making something that’s never existed before, custom jewelry design can be a transformative experience.

-A Geometric Sapphire Ring-

My client was an artist herself, so I wanted this ring design to echo her personal aesthetic I’d observed in her own geometric landscape paintings of the Pacific Northwest. The royal blue and the deep teal green of the sapphires conjure the hues of the alpine lakes and wilderness of the region.
I strived to achieve compositional balance by finding equilibrium between the positive and negative space. The crisp geometric boundaries of the gemstones and active design elements are made more striking and powerful because of the pierced open spaces that surround them, giving them space to breathe.
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– An Heirloom Halo Design-

This rare colorless 3.81ct round brilliant cut diamond required a ring that would showcase it to its best advantage. I designed this ring to feature a delicate band and halo of fishtail set diamonds so dainty that they would only serve to emphasize the large scale of the center diamond.
I created the lattice support structure for the halo like sparkling lace with crescent shaped windows allowing for the unobstructed passage of light and glittering views of the diamond’s pavilion from every perspective. I added subtle antique-inspired details like milgrain, engraving and hand-fabricated filigree curls to highlight our craftsmanship of heirloom quality.

-A Symbolic Mandala Engagement Ring-

In honor of my client’s heritage, a Buddhist mandala inspired this kaleidoscopic arrangement of marquise blue sapphires, pear cut and round brilliant cut diamonds, yellow gold filigree curls, and a central hexagonal green sapphire.
This aid to meditation is a cosmic diagram reminding us of our relation to infinity, extending beyond and within our bodies and minds.
This extremely intricate design even features a special hidden detail inside the ring directly underneath the center stone, where I’ve placed the Chinese symbol for happiness and longevity in yellow gold to contrast against the surrounding platinum. Attention to detail brings this design to life.
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