a short history

Rebecca Bunting began making jewelry at the age of fifteen. She was mesmerized by fine metals and gemstones, and having inherited tools from a watchmaker great grandfather and a tool & die making grandfather, she felt destined to follow in their footsteps and work with her hands at a trade.

She found the best opportunity for learning to be a bench jeweler was not in a university setting, but in a combination of art workshop experiences, beginning at the Castle Hill School of Art in Truro, MA, then to the Brookfield Craft Center in Brookfield, CT, and the Sharon Art Center in Sharon, NH. She went on to teach at the Westchester Art Workshop in White Plains, NY. She was employed for seven years as a full-time jeweler at Jewelry By Jose Grant, Inc., in Stamford, CT., learning to work directly with clients to create custom designs, and gained experience in all kinds of reproduction and repair.

Bunting has also been employed by Derek Simpson of New Haven, who designs very contemporary and sleek jewelry, and Paul Lantuch, producing his heavily sculptural baroque designs for Neiman Marcus. These very different styles both emphasize a very high degree of workmanship and quality, and both have influenced Buntings’ choice of gemstones, stonesetting methods and practical considerations of wearability. Combining these factors with her love of wire and organically curved compositions, conveys her unique style but also imparts the element of fine heirloom jewelry.