The Golden Menagerie

Book excerpt: With an artist's eye and an explorer's heart, Temple St. Clair fashions jewelry from rare colored gems with distinctive gold work to illustrate universal narratives of the earth and cosmos. In each of the one-of-a-kind pieces that comprise her Haute Couture collection, St. Clair explores our relationship to animals through a lens of whimsy and discovery and celebrates a connoisseur's level of gemstones and Florentine craftsmanship. The Golden Menagerie offers an exclusive window into the alchemic jeweler's process, illustrating the collection through St. Clair's original watercolor paintings and luminous photography of each stage of creation. From the articulated Secret Garden Serpent necklace to vibrantly jeweled Fantasy Birds earrings to a ring mounted with a falcon ready to take flight from the wearer's finger, St. Clair's creations come to life on the page, imbued with alchemy and artistry.