Joseph Walter Ramsay is a man obsessed-

A man obsessed with color and form and their innumerable combinations. With integumentary structures – especially novel ones – and with taphonomy, detrivora, and cladistics. He is captivated by natural gems, especially those exhibiting optical phenomena. He especially loves the shivering Asterism present in certain Sapphires and the captivating slash of a Cat’s Eye Chrysoberyl.

Joseph works out of New York, immortalizing his fascinations within one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces. The American Museum of Natural History is a favorite haunt and Joseph’s preferred destination to spend an afternoon. Through countless visits, both brief and sustained, he sits with the collection and lets it invigorate him and color his thoughts. The myriad of jewels, fossils, and artifacts work their way through his pens and markers and onto the pages of his sketchbook. He tinkers with devising new faceting arrangements- and works closely with those who tinker better. Melee is deployed to reflect light in denser sprays off larger tables in some applications, or sharp chatoyancy is split into panels of light for varying effects in others.

Joseph strives to surprise his clients and anyone who catches a glance. His jewelry understands convention and concerns itself with presenting stones in surprising positions on the body, letting the wearer display themselves in new ways. Joseph is an eager collaborator and avid learner- always happy to read a new abstract and fervently commit the information to his sketchbook.

Joseph designs the jewelry to be otherworldly while still being of this planet- to represent evolution’s progressing in ways it hasn’t yet, to be speculative about the aesthetics of the yet-to-be while mindful of what has been. The jewelry can appear familiar at first glance but upon closer inspection the peculiarities shine through, threads of Cambrian positioning or Cretaceous layering, like fossils unearthed in a faraway range and brought to our moment to be picked over and strung on cords like shells or threaded through appreciative fingers, and loved.