The world may be your oyster, but Wilton resident Sabina Furst has found a way to make the oyster’s pearl represent the world, through her eponymous jewelry design company, Sabina Furst Design. Her whimsical, yet classic jewelry allows the wearer to capture a little bit of international exotica with earrings, necklaces and bracelets inspired by Furst’s travels abroad to locales like Italy, India and Indonesia, blended with what she loves of the natural beauty and lifestyle of her New England home.
For 10 years, Furst has been building her jewelry business, making each and every piece by hand. Her hallmark is to incorporate gemstones, shells and pearls in her designs, which are often both classic and modern. The pieces are delicate yet striking, and customers not only find pieces with lustrous gemstones in unique color combinations, that reflect the sense of Furst’s joie de vivre and a style that is a fresh, light take on bohemian-chic, yet sophisticated and elegant.
Furst manages her growing business while also hand-crafting all the designs that are offered on her website and in a variety of New England stores, including Wilton’s very own Signature Style.
Before graduating from Skidmore College, Furst studied art and art history, and then went on to live in London where she was enrolled in the year-long Works of Art Course at Sotheby’s auction house. It was there that Furst discovered her love for gemstones and jewelry, although it wasn’t until years later when she began her business that she realized the potential of her passion.
“I developed a love for color, pattern, and texture. And from there I just got into jewelry. It was more tactile. I really liked the actual creating. When I was working in interior design it was a lot of design work, but you couldn’t actually make it yourself. I realized it was the crafting that I really liked,” she explains
Furst’s work blends her more conventional upbringing with a more bohemian, laid-back vibe inspired by her travels.
“I grew up in a more kind of classic surrounding, like my mother dressed very classically, classic strand of pearls and things like that. I went [abroad], where things were a little more laid back–kind of bohemian, so to speak. I like that aspect about it, without being too much that way. I have a lot of colorful jewelry–I like to mix different color schemes together.”
Her pieces make the perfect gift for almost anyone, from moms and daughters to friends and recent graduates. Each design is unique and can be paired with almost anything.
Furst hopes to grow her business by expanding with a more upscale line as well, working with diamonds and other precious gemstones. For now though, Furst has a hope for anyone wearing a Sabina Furst Design: “I want people to feel good when they wear it, to feel happy. It’s to make you feel good about yourself.”
Furst’s unique, handcrafted designs can be found on her website, and in brick-and-mortar retail stores both locally (Signature Style in Wilton; Ally Bally B in Branchville and New Canaan; and She La La in Westport) as well as in New York and Massachusetts. Her next Wilton trunk show will be this fall at Signature Style.