This article appears in print in the May 2020 issue. Click here to subscribe. 

Rebekah Jaramillo is known for contemporary jewelry created in whimsical shapes, such as layered geometric patterns, and with colorful stone accents. In February, Jaramillo debuted Chosen, a new line through her namesake brand, Rebekah J. Designs, featuring gold fill, brass and silver rings, earrings and necklaces ($33–$212). Woven through the collection are soft rectangles and circles embedded with iconography, including abstract eyes and hands, inspired by Gustav Klimt’s famous painting “The Kiss”. The contrast between that work’s two figures played a part in helping Jaramillo develop her new line: the soft, round shapes of the woman compared to the hard verticality of the man’s stance and tile-like rectangles cascading down his cape. “I was struck with the enormous level of juxtaposition between the two halves of the painting,” she says. These two ideas—rigid lines and soft, organic curves—find common ground in pieces such as the “Her” and “Held” pendants.