Jewelry Designs by Karen Sugarman

Scottsdale jewelry designer Karen Sugarman's necklaces look like glittering treasures plucked from a crystal-encrusted cavern or washed up on a tropical beach.


The first piece, entitled "Shell of an Idea III," features pink and white shell beads, pink rhodochrosite, baroque pearls, and an antique, angel skin coral cameo with a 10K gold bezel. To give the image a natural, sunlit look, I used a diffused backlight at a low angle to emphasize the contours of the cameo and glittering texture of the black sand. The second piece, entitled "Melodie Necklace," features an 88-carat Swiss-blue topaz briolette, accented by multicolored tourmaline briolettes. The challenge here was to capture the glow of the faceted briolettes without washing out the tones of the graduated background.