Your Premier Jewelry Design Studio

Spectrum Art & Jewelry is Proud to Introduce

our Award-Winning Design Team

Star Sosa

Gallery Owner & Award-Winning Jewelry Designer

Star has been designing fine jewelry for clients across the United States since 1987. Her career has taken her from San Francisco to Santa Fe and finally to Wilmington. For the past fourteen years she has devoted herself to developing Wilmington's premier jewelry design studio offering the best in fine jewelry creation. Her influences are eclectic and varied from ancient Greece to Meso-America with a passion for gold and unusual colored gems.

See more Designs by Star Sosa

See Bridal Designs by Star Sosa

After years of developing Spectrum Art & Jewelry, Star has assembled a unique team of talented individuals. The Spectrum Design Team has almost 100 years combined jewelry design, manufacturing and retail experience. These talented people bring a new level of artistry to our Fine Jewelry Design Studio.

You'll learn more about their special skills below:

Susan Drake

Award-Winning Jewelry Designer

Susan found her first introduction to jewelry during a summer job while in high school in Florida. After earning a Masters of Arts at the University of Tennessee, Susan pursued her jewelry passion, receiving a Graduate Jewelry Degree from the Gemological Institute of America. She has worked in jewelry retail in Chicago and Fort Meyers before opening a jewelry design studio in Blowing Rock, NC. Susan has won five Spectrum Awards from the American Gem Trade Association. The Spectrum award is the equivalent of an Oscar in the Jewelry Industry. With her love of exceptional gems and contemporary sculptural forms, she brings a unique, creative vision to Spectrum Art and Jewelry.

See more Designs by Susan Drake

See Bridal Designs By Susan Drake

Scott Jones

Master Goldsmith

A native of California, Scott started his career as an apprentice goldsmith/diamond cutter while attending high school in Liberia, West Africa. Since then, he has worked with renowned jewelry designers in California and Arizona in all aspects of fine jewelry manufacturing. He has worked on diamond jewelry valued up to 2 million dollars! His presence in the gallery brings a new level of skill and professionalism. We now offer a full range of fine jewelry repair, restoration and creation services. Below is an image of a recent creation that Scott hand crafted for one of our clients.

We now have a complete jewelry workshop that enables us to do...

Jewelry repair and restoration

Cleaning

Casting

Redesign

Fabrication

From Concept to Creation -

Watch your customs designs evolve, from the first sketch, to locating the perfect diamond or colored gem to its final execution in gold or platinum.

It all starts with a fun and free

Jewelry Box Review

Here is what you can expect:

Initial Review, Sort and Prioritizing -

This will identify what needs to be addressed first. Star or Susan will help you sort out what should be saved, what needs to be cleaned, what requires repairs or restoration or restyle, and what, if anything, might be a candidate to recycle or resell.

Together, we will explore and evaluate your fine jewelry collection. You will be surprised and delighted with our creative suggestions. An appointment is necessary for your Jewelry Box Review. Book yours by calling the gallery at 910-256-2323.

To read more about our Jewelry Box Review visit our website

Spectrum Art and Jewelry has an inventory of exceptional and unique colored gems. We can procure diamonds of every quality, size and shape as well as any other gems you desire.

Digital Goldsmith

Having Trouble envisioning your new design? Not a problem with Digital Goldsmith! We have a computer aided design program to assist in communicating our ideas to clients. This program makes it possible to preview your design selection in photographic detail and to investigate options quickly and easily. Using a high resolution digital camera system connected directly to my computer, we can photograph your existing jewelry or gemstones and demonstrate various modifications directly on the computer.

To see examples from our Digital Goldsmith Program view Star's Custom Design Page

Commisson Paintings

A customer came into the gallery recently looking for paintings to go in her beach house at Topsail.
She saw a painting I had done called "Walking the Dog".

She asked if I would do a similar painting from a photo she had of her husband walking their two dogs (Willie & Dickens) at Topsail. We decided on a size and she emailed me the photo to use as reference material.

Below is the finished painting!

Commissions can be a nice way to memorialize an event or a special time and place. Most of the painters at Spectrum Art & Jewelry are happy to discuss commissions. Just ask us how to get started.

You may be wondering what the customers response was to the painting?
Well here it is...
"I gave my husband the painting you did of him walking WIllie and Dickens and I just had to share with you the reaction he had when he saw. He was quiet for a moment, then he teared up and then said "this is the best gift anyone has ever given me." Those were his actual words! Don't you just love it when your art moves someone?"

Paint on,

Nancy Noel May!

Nancy's Plein Air paint box design

Russ and I had a busy 4th of July weekend creating a new paint box and panel holder to go out and use for plein air painting.

As Russ said "It's not pretty, but it works" - I'm happy, all my stuff fits in one neat box.
I think I'll paint something on it to make it "pretty".

Feel free to copy the design, I started with the size of my paint tubes and worked out from there.

Paint on,

Nancy

Paint box closed - still need to add a closure hook of some kind. 5/8" plywood

for sides and 1/4" plywood for bottoms. Glued and screwed together.

I started with the size of my paint tubes and worked out from there.
I can easily hold 7 tubes on each side.
Middle box for my palette and brushes. Piano hinges holding boxes together.
Angle iron - right angle corners - bent to hold onto easel.
Have to use the rubber bands to keep the paint tubes from falling when I close the box.
Need heavier elastic bands.

Panel holder box made from 1/4" foam core,
1/4"x1/4" square balsa wood
and duct tape.

Panel Box - open I can store 6 panels of 8x10 or 6x8
- used a piece of Velcro to hold the top closed

Close up showing the balsa wood placement - 1/2" apart. I can store 8 panels
if the outside ones have not been painted on yet or are completely dry.