“I don’t believe a piece is finished until you start wearing it and it begins to pick up your patina, your texture,” the goldsmith Jean Prounis explains, describing her designs for her eponymous New York–based classic but quirky fine-jewelry line. “It’s like a leather jacket or a great pair of jeans or a cotton T-shirt. At first they’re fresh and stiff. You have to break them in.”
I am visiting Jean in her new Prounis studio just off Mulberry Street, and I can confidently report that the cabochon-sapphire Roz ring I have popped on my finger is rapidly becoming as comfy as a battered T-shirt. It flaunts a vintage 4.5-carat stone at its center, and it is from Jean’s Gaea collection, named in honor of the Greek goddess of the Earth.
