Hilary Finck

Hilary Finck

San Francisco, CA

Hilary Finck designs and hand-crafts all of her jewelry in her sunny San Francisco

studio. Her designs are inspired by the distinct beauty of rough and polished stones, the desire to brighten things up with pops of color, and the transformational shapes and textures created by hand hammering. One design influences another, and another...and so it goes. Hilary’s jewelry is unique, kinetic, playful, has a feminine spirit, and feels great to wear. There is a balance of urban and natural, organic and architectural, and minimal and edgy in all of Hilary's pieces. Many of Hilary's pieces are one-of-a-kind, and even small production pieces can be thought of as one-of-a-kind because no two pieces are ever truly alike.

Hilary studied jewelry design and metalsmithing at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO. Upon moving to San Francisco in 2000, she apprenticed with Peter and Dan Macchiarini at Macchiarini Creative Design for two years, and then went on to start her own studio. Hilary has taught jewelry design and metalsmithing classes at the Palo Alto Art Center in Palo Alto, CA and the Silvermine Art Center in New Canaan, CT. Hilary is currently the President of the Metal Arts Guild in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Captured Jewelry

I developed the Captured setting technique years ago when I would find seashells and other unique beachcombing artifacts that I wanted to turn into jewelry. I’ve never been a huge fan of making prong settings, which would have been a perfectly acceptable way to set such items, so instead I developed the Captured setting. Since the shells and beach artifacts were irregularly shaped, capturing them in an open box/window with crossbars holding them in place seemed like a logical way for me to set them. The Captured setting has a bit of a dadaist feel to me -- it’s like the anti-setting. I’ve always been attracted to what is different and unusual, and my Captured pieces definitely have a signature look that you won’t find from anyone else. Today I capture polished gemstones and interesting rough stones. I let the stone dictate the overall design. It’s fun to make extravagant Captured pieces with plique-a-jour, but sometimes the stone simply deserves to become a drop earring or stud.

Click here to read our interview with her!

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Hilary was featured in Pistachio's autumn 2021 exhibition 'Sticks and Stones and Broken Bones' alongside Daniel Dicaprio, Kate Furman, Joanna Gollberg, Anna Johnson, Carin Jones, and Robert Thomas Mullen.

Hilary Finck was a featured trunk show artist from October 13th – 16th, 2022 at Pistachios