Inspired by the blooms outside his workshop windows in western North Carolina, Stuart Nye made his first sterling silver dogwood pin by hand in 1933. Since then his original designs have become nationally known and loved.

Though styles, uses, and sizes are in constant change and the Nye Studio artists now work in copper and brass as well as sterling silver, the basic designs, after all these years, are still Stuart Nye's.

The tools of the trade are simple ones: chisels made from old files, punches made from nail sets or common nails, metal shears and hammers from the local hardware store, lead for forming that we mold in a cast iron skillet, and anvils a blacksmith could use. The goal is to produce jewelry of extraordinary quality for ordinary people to own and enjoy.