From an old piece of driftwood to a finished piece of sterling silver.

Driftwood Pendant: When Nature Becomes Jewelry

There are some pieces of wood that are beautiful simply because of what time has done to them.

This Driftwood Pendant began with that kind of inspiration.

The original piece of wood has been with me for more than 20 years. It has dried, aged, changed, and developed the kind of texture that can't be manufactured.

When I began sculpting this pendant in wax, I wasn't trying to copy the wood.

I was trying to translate what I saw in it.

The flowing grain.

The ridges.

The openings.

The movement.

I wanted the finished piece to feel organic rather than perfectly planned—as though nature had created the form and I had simply followed along.

Look closer. Every curve, opening, and textured line was sculpted to carry the movement of nature into metal.

Looking Closer

Once the wax sculpture began to take shape, the details became just as important as the overall form.

The texture needed to move through the pendant naturally. The raised areas needed to catch the light, while the deeper grooves would become beautifully dark once the piece was oxidized.

That contrast is part of what gives this pendant its character.

It isn't meant to look like a perfect piece of wood.

It is meant to feel like nature translated into metal.

And that's where the magic of lost-wax sculpting comes in.

I can take something I see in nature and work it directly with my hands in wax—carving, shaping, removing, adding, and following the form until it feels right.

Then the wax disappears.

The texture remains.

A Pendant for Anyone

I designed this Driftwood Pendant as a unisex piece.

There is something about organic forms that doesn't belong to one particular style or gender. The texture gives it character, while the elongated shape and oxidized sterling silver give it enough presence to stand on its own.

It can be worn simply, letting the pendant be the focal point, or layered with other pieces.

But either way, it carries the same idea that has been at the heart of my work for more than 20 years:

Nature leaves the imprint. I simply translate it into metal.

And sometimes, the simplest inspiration can become something completely unexpected.

Front and back—because a pendant can tell more than one story when it turns.

Pendant Details

Collection: Driftwood Pendants

Metal: Sterling Silver

Finish: Oxidized

Size: Approximately 56 mm × 40 mm at the widest points

Weight: 0.27 oz

Style: Unisex

Process: Hand-sculpted wax / Lost-wax casting

 

Woodland Weave — where the beauty of nature becomes a piece of jewelry.

When the Woodland Weave Becomes Jewelry

There is a moment in creating jewelry that I never take for granted.

It is the moment when something that existed only in my hands, my imagination, and a piece of wax finally becomes real jewelry.

That moment has arrived for Woodland Weave.

For years, I have been drawn to the way branches grow around, over, and beside one another in nature. They don't follow straight lines. They twist. They reach. They intertwine.

That is the feeling I wanted to capture in this collection.

And now, I can finally show you one of the finished pieces.

Woodland Weave is no longer just an idea. It is jewelry.

The Woodland Weave ring begins in my hands, sculpted in wax around the stone that inspired the design.

From the woodland to the studio

When I begin a piece, I don't start with a computer drawing or a manufactured setting.

I work with wax.

I carve, bend, remove, add, and shape until the design begins to feel alive in my hands. The branches have to look as though they could have grown that way naturally.

That organic quality is important to me.

I don't want the jewelry to look like nature was copied.

I want it to feel as though nature found its way into the metal.

And then comes the stone

This particular ring became something especially beautiful when the green-and-beige stone found its place within the branches.

The colors remind me of things you might discover on a woodland walk—the greens of moss and leaves, the earthy beige of bark and stone, and all the subtle variations that make something found in nature unique.

I didn't want the setting to overpower the stone.

I wanted the branches to hold it, protect it, and become part of its story.

That is what I love about this ring.

Nothing feels separated.

The stone and the branches belong together.

The finished piece

Once the wax becomes silver, something magical happens.

The tiny textures become deeper. The branches become stronger. The oxidation settles into the details and brings out the lines that I carved by hand.

And suddenly, what I could see in my mind is sitting in front of me.

A finished ring.

A piece of Woodland Weave.

And this is where the collection takes its next step.

Not from nature into wax.

But from wax into jewelry.

A ring meant to be worn

There is another moment I love even more than seeing a finished piece sitting on my workbench.

Seeing it on a hand.

That is when jewelry becomes personal.

It stops being an object I created and becomes something someone can wear, live with, and eventually make part of their own story.

That is what I hope for every piece I create.

Not simply that someone will look at it and think it is beautiful.

But that they will put it on and feel that somehow, it belongs to them.

💚

A new chapter begins

Woodland Weave began with an idea that had been living in my mind.

Then it moved into wax.

Then into metal.

And now it is ready to leave my studio and become part of someone's story.

This is only the beginning of the collection.

There are more branches to weave, more stones to discover, and more pieces waiting to take shape.

For me, that is the joy of creating.

Nature gives me the inspiration.

My hands give it form.

And eventually, the jewelry gets to go out into the world.

A new chapter of Woodland Weave has begun.

— Dawn Vertrees
Dawn Vertrees Jewelry

When Driftwood Becomes Jewelry 🌿❤️

The finished Driftwood Pendant — sculpted in wax, transformed into 14k Rose Gold, and finished with deep oxidation to reveal the organic texture and movement of the design.

When Driftwood Becomes Jewelry

There are times when I sit down with a piece of wax and I don't really know what I'm going to make.

I just start looking.

I look at the shape. I turn it over in my hands. I follow a line with my eyes and wonder where it wants to go. Sometimes the piece tells me what it wants to become long before I have a name for it.

That is how this pendant began.

I wanted to capture something I have always loved about driftwood—the way nature can take something as ordinary as a piece of wood and transform it into something extraordinary.

Driftwood isn't perfect.

It is weathered. It has been shaped by water, wind, time and movement. Its surface carries the evidence of everything it has been through.

That is what I wanted this pendant to feel like.

Not a picture of a piece of wood.

But the spirit of driftwood.

Before it became gold, it was simply a piece of blue wax in my hand — sculpted line by line until the form finally felt right.

♥

It Started in Wax...

Working in soft wax gives me the freedom to sculpt the way I see.

I don't begin with a perfectly symmetrical drawing and then try to make the jewelry match it. I follow the movement of the material.

One line becomes another. A branch curves. A space opens. A little bit of wax disappears and suddenly the whole piece breathes differently.

I love those openings.

They are just as important as the metal that remains.

The negative space allows light to travel through the pendant and creates the deep shadows that make the piece feel almost alive.

And, as often happens with my work, I changed it.

The first version wasn't quite where I wanted it to be. I went back into the wax and revised the form, allowing the lines to become more fluid and the lower portion of the pendant to have more movement.

Sometimes the smallest change is what finally makes a piece feel right.

From Wax to Metal

Once the wax is finished, the piece begins another life.

This version is envisioned in 14k Rose Gold, with oxidation worked into the deeper recesses.

That contrast is important to me.

I don't want every surface of my jewelry to shout, Look at me, I'm gold.

I want the light to find the raised areas while the darker oxidized recesses settle into the background.

Just like the cracks and shadows in a piece of weathered wood.

The result is warm, dimensional and organic.

It still looks like something that might have been found along the edge of a river or tucked beneath an old tree.

Only now, it has become jewelry.

The Beauty Is in the Imperfection

I think that is what keeps drawing me back to nature.

Nothing is perfectly symmetrical.

Nothing repeats itself exactly.

A branch doesn't stop and ask whether its next curve makes sense. It simply grows.

That is what I try to capture when I sculpt.

I want the finished piece to feel as though it grew rather than was constructed.

This Driftwood Pendant is one of those pieces where the metal almost disappears as metal.

You see the movement first.

You see the texture.

You see the spaces.

And then you realize that what you're looking at is gold.

A Little Piece of the Forest

I have spent much of my jewelry-making life looking at leaves, twigs, roots, vines, bark and the little details most people walk right past.

I don't see just a piece of wood.

I see a line.

A curve.

A place where light falls.

A shape that might become something completely different in my hands.

That is the magic of creating jewelry this way.

I don't have to reproduce nature.

I get to interpret it.

And sometimes, a little piece of driftwood becomes a pendant.

❤️

Designed and sculpted by Dawn Vertrees.

When a Simple Berry Tells the Story...

The first glimpse of the Leaf & Berry Twig Ring. A little red berry inspired what would become the beginning of the Berry Collection.

Front view showing the intertwined branches rising to offer the center stone, a guiding principle behind my nature-inspired jewelry designs.

Side profile highlighting the bark texture, leaf detail, and substantial branch structure that form the foundation of the design.

🌿🍒

Every design has a beginning.

Sometimes it starts with a gemstone.
Sometimes it starts with a sketch.
And sometimes it starts with something so small that most people would overlook it.

For me, it started with a simple little red dot.

That tiny berry became the spark that inspired what is now growing into the Leaf & Berry Collection.

The ring shown here represents the earliest stage of that journey. At this point, the design is only about 30% complete. Like the vines and branches that inspire my work, it will continue to grow, change, and evolve as new ideas emerge and future versions are created.

The foundation begins with intertwined twig structures that naturally weave around the finger. Small leaves emerge from the branches while tiny berries appear throughout the design, creating the feeling of a living woodland vine rather than a traditional jewelry setting.

At the center, the branches rise upward and gently offer the stone. This reflects one of the guiding principles behind my work: gemstones should feel lifted and presented by nature, not simply held in place. The stone becomes a gift offered by the branches that grew around it.

The berries may be one of the smallest details in the design, yet they carry the greatest meaning. They serve as a reminder that inspiration can come from the simplest things. A single berry became the seed from which an entire collection began to grow.

This blog will follow the development of the Leaf & Berry Twig Ring as the design progresses from wax model to finished jewelry. Future updates will document design refinements, castings, gemstone variations, finished pieces, and new additions to the Berry Collection.

Today, it begins with a single berry.

Tomorrow, we'll see where it grows.

— Dawn Vertrees

Updated Wax Model & 14k Rose Gold Visualization

"Every design goes through a period of growth. After studying the original wax model, I refined the branch tips so they embrace the diamond more naturally, strengthening the feeling that the stone is being lifted and offered by the surrounding twigs. The updated wax model allowed me to fine-tune these small details before casting."

"Seeing the design visualized in 14k rose gold revealed details that are difficult to see in colored wax. The soft oxidation settles into the bark texture while the polished berries catch the light, creating contrast and bringing the organic elements to life. Comparing the wax model to the rose gold version helps me evaluate the flow, balance, and overall emotion of the piece."

"Sometimes a simple berry tells the story. What begins as a small accent becomes part of a larger journey, guiding the eye through the design and connecting every branch, leaf, and detail to the center stone. Each refinement brings the ring closer to my vision of nature gently presenting a precious gift."

New Forest Collection: The Matching Wedding Band Story

 

When It becomes Something More...

Sometimes a custom design reaches a point where everything suddenly makes sense.

This wedding band began as a challenge: create a ring that matched a previously commissioned engagement ring featuring a Blue Sapphire in 14k Rose Gold with a medium oxidation finish — but without simply copying the original design.

The engagement ring carried a very organic, woodland flow with curved branch structures wrapping and lifting the sapphire almost like it was being offered upward. The side profile had movement, growth, and softness to it. 

But this ring needed a different presence.

Instead of designing the wedding band completely from scratch, I decided to work almost genetically.

New Forest emerald engagement ring set in flowing organic branches
with matching nested wedding band in warm rose gold.

Because I made the molds from both of my original rings, I began borrowing structural elements directly from the engagement ring and wedding band. I used the side architecture from the engagement ring as the foundation for this band, then combined and blended two wedding bands together to create a broader, stronger flow.

New Forest matching wedding band in rose gold featuring intertwined
flowing branch textures inspired by natural woodland forms.

The result became less about creating “matching rings” and more about creating two rings that clearly belong to the same story.

One of the most important parts of the process was preserving the organic language of the original design while shifting the overall movement into a more masculine direction. Instead of delicate upward movement, the branches became more grounded and structured. The lines were straightened slightly, spacing adjusted, and the overall posture of the ring changed without losing the feeling of natural growth.

Since this ring would not contain a stone, additional twig structures were added to blend the transitions together and create continuity across the surface of the band itself.

The medium oxidation in the 14k Rose Gold will help unify everything in the final cast by darkening the recesses and emphasizing the bark-like texture and depth between the branches.

These are the moments I love most as a designer.

The quiet early-morning hours where the pieces stop feeling separate and suddenly become one complete idea.

Not duplicated. Not copied. But connected.

That is always the goal.

To create jewelry that feels like it grew naturally into existence.

— New Forest

Three Mushrooms, One Journey

 

Three Mushrooms, One Journey

  

Beneath the surface, where life quietly forms, three mushrooms rise.

The Explorer. The Watcher. The Newcomer.

Each one carries a different moment in the same journey.

Where the Story Begins

A single branch rises, holding three lives at different stages.

This ring wasn’t designed—it grew.
The branches formed first, and the mushrooms followed, each finding its place naturally within the structure.

Three Paths, One Form

Three forms, each moving in its own direction.

If you look closely, no two mushrooms move the same way.

One reaches outward, one remains still, and one is just beginning to emerge.

The Explorer

The Explorer leans away from the others—drawn outward.

It represents the part of us that moves forward without certainty…

simply because something inside says go.

The Watcher

The Watcher stands steady at the center.

Not everything needs to move to grow.
Some things deepen by simply being present.

The Newcomer

Held by the forest

The branches wrap and support each form, not forcing direction—only holding space.

Every line, every texture was left intentionally, so when oxidation settles in, the depth reveals itself—just like bark on a tree.

This piece isn’t just worn… it’s felt.

Unveiling the "Banyan Collection": Roots of Inspiration for Spring

The final Banyan Collection design, featuring the intricate, woven root shank in antique rose gold, set with a stunning light blue aquamarine. Launching Spring 2026.

 Unveiling the "Banyan Collection": Roots of Inspiration for Spring

Today, we're thrilled to introduce a design that truly embodies the heart of our craft: the Banyan Collection, set for our Spring Release. This collection is a deeply personal exploration of nature's enduring strength and intricate beauty, born from an imagination that finds wonder in the world around us.

The Banyan is a big tree, known for its aerial roots that grow down from the branches to form new trunks.

The inspiration for this design is the majestic Banyan tree, which first sparked our original design journey. When living in Florida, the sight of the Banyan's powerful, flowing aerial roots back in 2003 inspired the very first concept for our signature leaf motif.

This new collection returns to that original source. Its aerial roots, gracefully descending and intertwining, create a dance of growth and resilience. This natural artistry sparked a vision—a ring that would mirror this organic complexity, a wearable sculpture that tells a story of connection and strength, moving beyond the traditional leaf to the foundational root structure itself.

My First Sketch

It began with a quick simple sketch, a moment where the intricate network of Banyan roots took form on paper.

The Vision Realized

After refining the initial concept with the help of advanced visualization tools, we are proud to introduce the final piece. The design features a densely woven network of Banyan-inspired roots, emphasizing texture and organic flow, beautifully capturing the original vision:

Details of the Banyan Ring

Metal: 14k Rose Gold with an Antique Finish

Center Stone: Oval, faceted Light Blue Aquamarine

Design: Intricately carved, interwoven root structure inspired by the Banyan tree's complex support system.

Release: Available this Spring.

We invite you to celebrate the natural elegance and powerful story behind the Banyan Collection. Stay tuned for the official launch date!

The Raw Beauty of the Twig Weave: A 1.85ct Journey Nature, Unrefined

This signature set from the Twig Weave Collection features a rough diamond encased in organic, hand-carved silver vines. Using our "How It’s Not Made" philosophy, the metal is cast directly around the gems for maximum durability without the use of fragile prongs.

The Story of the Earth: This 1.85-carat rough diamond carries the story of the earth exactly as it was found.

One-of-a-Kind: Because nature never makes the same rough stone twice, this ring is a true one-of-a-kind treasure.

Organic Inspiration: The setting is designed to be just as raw and grounding as the diamond itself.

Beyond the Prong: You won’t see any traditional prongs here because they snag, scratch, and eventually fail.

Woven Strength: Using my signature cast-in-place method, silver twigs grow around the diamond to secure it.

Built to Last: The stone is "caged" and protected within the structure of the metal, not just sitting on top of it.

How It’s Not Made: This piece represents the movement against mass-produced, assembly-line jewelry.

Hand-Sculpted Art: I hand-sculpt every twig to follow the exact "map" of this specific diamond.

Master Artistry: With 20 years of lost wax design, my goal is for the metal to look grown, not manufactured.

Shop Twig Weave Ring

Twig Weave Pendant

Introducing the Twig Weave Collection: A Matching Set

This new set perfectly captures the spirit of nature-inspired design. Each piece is hand-carved in wax and features our signature cast-in-place technique.

The Design Philosophy: "How It's Not Made"

Most jewelry relies on thin, fragile prongs to hold a stone in place. We do things differently:

• Integrated Strength: The metal branches are cast directly around the rough gemstone, creating a permanent bond.

• Organic Texture: We use hand-carved details to mimic the natural ridges and patterns found in real tree bark.

• Worry-Free Wear: Because there are no prongs to snag or bend, these pieces are built for a lifetime of daily wear.

A Perfect Match

The ring and pendant both feature raw, earthy stones encased in sterling silver vines. This set is designed for those who appreciate the raw beauty of the outdoors and want jewelry that feels as if it were found in a forest.

Shop Twig Weave Pendant

 

How It’s NOT Made - Rooted in Endurance

Built for the Wild: The "How It's Not Made" Philosophy

Most jewelry is designed for the jewelry box. It’s made with thin prongs, hollow stems, and fragile settings that ask you to pause. They tell you to take off your ring before you mount your horse, or to leave your necklace behind before you hit the trailhead.

We don’t believe in pausing.

How It’s Not Made

At DV Jewelry Designs, we’ve spent 20 years perfecting a process that the traditional industry won't touch. We don't "set" stones in fragile cages. We cast them in place. We sculpt 14k gold and sterling silver directly around the raw, organic edges of diamonds and gemstones, mimicking the way ancient roots grip the earth.

"Because your life shouldn't have to pause for your jewelry."

For the Climber & Hiker

You know the sound of granite against a ring. In a traditional setting, that’s the sound of a stone falling out. In a DV piece, it’s just another day on the mountain. Our organic twig and root designs are low-profile and solid, built to handle the grit of the trail and the pressure of the rock.

For the Equestrian

A lead rope or a heavy rein can bend a standard ring in seconds. Our "How It’s Not Made" approach ensures that your jewelry is as rugged as the spirit of the ride. No snags, no warping—just art that stays as strong as the bond with your horse.

The Endurance Standard

"Forged in the fire and anchored in gold, our designs are built to stay where they belong—on your hand, through every summit and every stride."

New Release: The Oxidized Twig Ring with 1.8ct Rough Diamond

 Embracing the Forest

Our newest one-of-a-kind creation: An oxidized sterling silver twig ring featuring a cast-in-place 1.8ct rough diamond, designed to perfectly match our signature pendant.

We are thrilled to unveil the newest one-of-a-kind creation from DV Jewelry. Designed as the perfect companion to our beloved twig pendant, this ring is a true testament to organic beauty.

 The design that started it all: Our signature oxidized silver twig pendant, the perfect companion to the new ring.

Handcrafted in sterling silver with a rustic oxidized finish, the branch-like setting is cast directly around a stunning 1.8ct rough diamond. This unique "cast-in-place" technique ensures that the stone is securely cradled by the metal, making each ring truly unique.

Behind the Scenes:
Carving the Wax Model for the Cast-in-Place Ring

Coming Soon!

We hope you love this new addition to our collection as much as we do!

Check back soon for availability.