Adam Neeley may be a jewelry designer and goldsmith by trade but, as he explains it, he sees himself as more of a modern alchemist; a self-described mad scientist, mixing metals and crafting experiments for over 25 years.
As one might then expect, Adam Neeley’s pieces embody this dichotic artistic approach — straddling tradition and innovation, the worlds of dreams and reality. It’s one of the ways Neeley’s work transcends the conventions one might expect in a craft as ancient as human civilization itself.
Many of Neeley’s designs can be described as dreamlike — with a pattern of crescent-moon curves, starry scatterings of diamonds and midnight sky-colored aquamarines — and this metaphor holds truth; much of Neeley’s work seems to emerge from a sort of dream state. “I usually can wake up and I have the piece perfectly imagined, like it’s already completed, already photographed,” he tells me over a video call from his gallery in Laguna Beach, California.
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This ability to tap into his subconscious is not merely spontaneous; it’s a practice he’s refined over the years. He captures these fleeting moments of inspiration quickly, sketching them down before the vision fades. There’s no doubt this subconscious brainstorming can be productive. “I can sometimes do 10 designs within a really good session,” he says, but it often marks the start of a meticulous and lengthy process before Neeley sees the pieces gracing the necks or earlobes of his customers.
While Neeley might have an idea, it doesn’t necessarily mean he has the materials or the tools to bring that creation to life. In fact, he frequently finds that such things don’t yet exist: “I have designs that maybe I will not actually create, actually start and finish for 10 years, and that might be because I need to develop the gold that I’ve dreamt up, or that technique so it can hold, or maybe it’s a gemstone that I’m searching for.”
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This was certainly the case with Neeley’s first dreamy design, conceived when he was an apprentice in Italy studying under master goldsmith Giò Carbone. “I had this dream of this beautiful, sinuous curve that came down, kind of like the edge of a clamshell, and then had the pearls just floating in the curves, with the gold going from yellow to white,” he says, his hands gesticulating waves as he describes the piece. Yet, he was immediately faced with a problem: “I was learning that process of how to do the gold, but it had an issue with hardness.”
This early challenge opened a rabbit hole for Neeley into the world of gold alloys, something that would become a hallmark of his career. It’s an expensive and laborious process — he’s done about 185 experiments over several years. Neeley laughs it off: “I’ve had a couple of explosions and interesting moments. I’ve vaporized gold before, which was a very expensive lesson to see $3,000 worth of gold just go up in the air.”
That explosive investment has paid off, with Neeley creating the SpectraGold gradient color technique and three distinct (and trademarked) solid colors of gold: AlbaGold, a peachy champagne-toned gold; RevaGold, a red gold with a touch of graphite; and VeraGold, a cool, minty sage green gold.
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Returning to those clamshell curved earrings Neeley envisioned in Italy, after conquering the challenge of the gold’s hardness and finding the perfect pearls at a gem show in Munich, Germany, Neeley finally created the piece with his experimental metal. “I actually entered it into the International Pearl Competition, and it won first place,” he says, his delight evident even over the video call. “And then, a year later, the curator and the head of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC called and said, ‘Your piece is really extraordinary. Would you be interested in having it as part of our nation’s collection?’”
Melissani ring with indicolite tourmaline in SpectraGold with custom-cut diamonds / ©Adam Neeley Designs
Despite much of Neeley’s work being mostly client or commission these days — most recently, he’s launched a high jewelry line — those aforementioned earrings are far from the last of Neeley’s collection to go on display to the public. In the first half of 2024, the Laguna Art Museum hosted a solo retrospective of Neeley’s work, the first jewelry-focused exhibition held by the museum.
The exhibition is something Neeley feels particularly proud of, a showcase of more than 140 pieces that explore the breadth of his career, starting with the first piece Neeley made at age 12 — a pair of earrings for his mother after he discovered gemstones in the Colorado mountains. The exhibition then moved through the years, “shifting and becoming less Southwestern, more contemporary, and moving into golden and fine work,” Neeley says.
What has remained consistent throughout all of Neeley’s work, however, is his deep connection to nature and its influence on his jewelry. From the Colorado mountains to his base of 18 years in Laguna Beach, the natural surroundings have been an ever-present source of inspiration. His most recent high jewelry line, the Cyclades collection, paid tribute to the ancient charm of Aegean Islands landscapes, with the standout Tonna Galea earrings inspired by a shell Neeley discovered during a vacation in Greece.
Yet, that connection to his roots doesn’t prevent Neeley from looking to the future and to technology to advance his craft. Neeley’s current focus is expanding beyond working with gold, into other materials like titanium for its lightweight nature and potential for a spectrum of color possibilities. “The parts are being 3D printed in Belgium by an aerospace company,” he adds. “And when I contacted them, I said, ‘I know this isn’t usual, and I’m a jeweler, but let’s give this a try.’” Of course, Neeley beams with excitement at the science of it all; its dream vision origin is certainly pioneering.
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