…Faye Kim and Her Call to Create
Art Show | written by: PAMELA DEY VOSSLER | studio photo by: BAMBI RIEGEL | riegelpictureworks.com
Jewelry photos courtesy Faye Kim
PLAINLY, TO ACHIEVE MASTERY IN ANY ART, you must know the how of it, and the what. Fired by a passion for her craft, an aesthetic certainty and a near insatiable curiosity, longtime fine jewelry designer Faye Kim has both well-covered. No wonder her pieces are so coveted, not just in Darien where she opened a retail showroom of her handmade creations last spring at 870 Post Road, but throughout the country, and the world, thanks to her website and longstanding presence on 1stDibs, an online marketplace for extraordinary furniture, home décor, art, fine jewelry, watches and fashion.
The how came rather circuitously, at least at first.
As a young girl, who came to the South Shore of Long Island from South Korea with her four siblings and parents when she was 7 years old, Faye was always pulled to “anything to do with fashion and interior design,” she said.
“I was creative that way as a kid. I was always decorating, rearranging furniture and would buy fabric and make my own clothes,” she recalled.
So, after high school, she did what any girl who loves fashion might do: She went to college, got a degree in economics and went to work in the accounting department of her father’s company.
“I was miserable,” recalled Faye, laughing now at the mismatch of it. Eight months in, on her mother’s recommendation, she swapped accounting for the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). There, she earned a graduate gemologist degree in Diamonds, Colored Stones and Pearls. It changed her world.
“I fell in love,” enthused Faye, still in awe after all these years of what comes naturally from the earth. “It is amazing.”
She spent the next six months in Manhattan’s diamond district sorting stones then joined Tiffany & Co. in the pearl buying office.
“Tiffany dealt with the world’s best pearl wholesalers,” said Faye. “My boss and I would sit in a room at a conference table and the vendors would put hundreds of hanks of pearls – big bundles, in front of us. I quickly learned how to decipher the good from the bad and how to grade them,” she recalled.
From Tiffany’s, she moved to Bergdorf Goodman as a fine jewelry buyer in charge of the Angela Cummings, Barry Kieselstein-Cord and Kentshire Antiques departments.
“It was like running a small business because these were independent boutiques within Bergdorf Goodman,” said Faye. At just 27 years old, she “learned to deal with the sales associates on the floor, worked with the accounting department, had to answer to the president and so on,” she explained.
Little did she grasp at the time just how well that knowledge would serve her as she married, resigned from her job to have the first two of her three children in Manhattan and filled the creative spaces left empty by this life stage with goldsmithing classes.
The how gathered steam.
“I took one class and was all in. I just loved it,” said Faye who learned the ancient Etruscan art of granulation at Cecilia Bauer’s studio in Chelsea. She learned how to alloy gold in different hues and karats, including 22 karat gold – her metal of choice based on its pliability, color and weight. (It actually feels as gorgeous as it looks.) She learned to work with silver and platinum as well. She learned how to carve wax models at Parsons School of Design. She took other classes from master jewelers and goldsmiths at the 92nd Street Y and throughout the City where she learned how to fabricate, weave, string and more over three years. Her last several years in Manhattan, she rented studio space with two jewelry goldsmith friends as they supported and learned from one another. (YouTube videos did not exist when Faye started all this.)
Faye Kim in her workshop in Darien
“Every time we’d sell a piece, we would invest the profits back into equipment,” recalled Faye. Tools like files, pliers, hammers, mandrels, polishers and a myriad more, things that now fill her studio at her store in Darien. (You wouldn’t believe what it takes to hand make what appears to be a simple piece.)
She left the studio when she moved with her then husband and children to a home in East Norwalk. Luckily, it had an artist studio that she claimed for her jewelry making. It was just what she needed as she had her third child and absorbed the jolt of exchanging City life for the ‘burbs.
“Just going into my studio was cathartic,” she added. It was a catharsis that worked. From that Norwalk studio 30 years ago where she made jewelry for friends, family and the occasional school fundraiser, she settled into Connecticut. After a move to Wilton where she raised her kids, Faye opened a retail store in Westport in 2003, moved to a private studio during the pandemic then returned to retail when she found the space in Darien.
The what of Faye’s designs has perhaps always been in her, a culmination of every influence past, present and future that makes up her deep belief in her gut.
Though, like any true artist, she loves design in all its forms and finds inspiration in just about everything she sees, it is her gut she steers by. “My gut really speaks to me,” said Faye. “Whether it’s making business decisions, navigating relationships or creating new designs — I always trust that instinct,” she continued.
The breadth of her collection—even across the many manifestations of her creativity, from her signature chains, rings and earrings, to the custom pieces she creates—reflects the warm, authentic person she is, and her distinctive style: the pure lines, the diaphanous heft, the master craftsmanship and best-in-class materials. Every piece is distinctive, a calming counter to the same-same commoditization of so much that crosses our paths. (The demand for her work reveals just how universal the desire to differentiate ourselves really is.)
She pays attention to fashion, but is not ruled by it. While highly trained in technique and fabrication, she was not classically schooled in jewelry design which left her room to craft a lane all her own—timeless and governed by no strictures or preconceived notions. (Though in the clean, contemporary contours of her work are echoes of the Victorian and vintage pieces she has always been drawn to.)
She creates what she likes, what she would wear, and uses her knowledge and the open mind she was born with to reimagine jewelry and stones her clients bring in, or custom make something entirely new based on their vision.
“I met Faye through a close mutual friend about 10 years ago. I’d picked up some stones on a beach during a family trip to Scotland and wanted to make necklaces for my daughters and me in memory of my Scottish grandmother,” said Darien resident Terrie Wood. “I was drawn to Faye’s warmth, her ability to listen and her creative intuition. She understood what I was looking for resulting in forever keepsakes,” she added.
Faye knows jewelry connects, and what she creates is here to stay. She’s that good.
“I was drawn to Faye’s more modern, clean-lined aesthetic and unique use of gemstones and pearls as well as her signature ‘18k green gold’ that has a deeper, richer look and feel to me,” said Darien’s Jayme Stevenson. “I don’t own or buy a lot of jewelry so when I do, I want pieces that have the quality that I would feel proud to pass down to my girls one day,” she continued
“I don’t remember the exact moment I first met Faye, but I do remember immediately being drawn to her work,” said Christine Kauffman of Darien. “We’ve been connected now for at least 15 years, and her work continues to reflect what I want to see in myself: inviting, quietly bold and full of heart. As a driven and thoughtful businesswoman, Faye has always been clear in her vision and confident in what she wants to build. I am continually in awe of her originality. Her calming presence is woven through every piece she creates and it is an honor to wear her one-of-a-kind designs.”
“We love Faye’s beautiful design style and the way she brings every detail together so thoughtfully,” echoed Christine’s husband Jeff. “Her personal attention and care for her clients really make the experience special. We’re thrilled to have Faye in Darien, and we hope everyone gets to know Faye and her beautiful work.”
As for why Faye pursues this art of jewelry design? She didn’t say. I didn’t ask. It seemed too obvious a question.
