Portrait of a creative space: Katy Beh

When I first entered Katy Beh’s studio, I had a bit of an anxiety attack. For a second, I thought I was at my dentist’s office. There were tiny steel implements used for drilling, grinding and polishing hard surfaces; there were huge magnifying glasses and bright lights that swiveled. I had a Marathon Man moment.

Then, my anxiety quickly turned to relief – relief that I hadn’t brought my wife. She would have wanted to buy EVERYTHING!

Katy uses those scary implements to create beautiful jewelry, necklaces, rings, bracelets and earrings. The RISD grad works exclusively in 22k yellow gold that she alloys herself. From the ingots, she makes sheets and wires. She then attaches and arranges natural gemstones like Peruvian opals, freshwater pearls, dyed quartz, crystals and diamonds. Her hand fabricated designs are all one-of-a-kind. They’re absolutely brilliant!

When Katy’s not designing jewelry, she can be found parading in the streets of New Orleans with the Camel Toe Lady Steppers. Laissez les bons temps rouler!

To learn more about Katy Beh and her work, go to http://www.katybeh.com. She will be hosting a holiday show the second week in December.

Note: A loud shout-out to Scott Saltzman, a great friend and a real photographer who lent me a macro lens for the shoot!