Rago Auctions

Good-humored, easygoing, spontaneous, unconventional, and fun are words Judith Kaufman uses to describe herself and which can just as easily apply to her stunningly beautiful jewelry. Kaufman worked as a silversmith and goldsmith for years before ever incorporating gemstones into her jewelry, and her mastery of these metals shows in her pieces. Kaufman began making jewelry in her teens and many of her first clients were friends and family members; several decades later, she maintains a thriving business and attends many juried shows and private invitational exhibitions per year. Though she is drawn to asymmetric designs and her designing space “has hundreds of stones lying about,” each of her works is impeccably crafted and finished to perfection. Her process is “kind of messy” and her ideas coalesce from playing with the elements and materials that are in front of her, resulting in pieces that are joyous and playful in their shapes and colors yet simultaneously exquisite in their execution. Kaufman’s jewelry is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Art and Design, New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and has been featured in numerous publications.