Sarah Nehama: Contemporary and Antique Mourning Jewelry

For more than 27 years, Sarah Nehama has been creating one-of-a-kind jewelry inspired by the natural world and the stories embedded within its materials. Having lived and worked in Boston and Los Angeles, she now maintains her studio in the Providence, Rhode Island area.

For Sarah, minerals are fragments of nature's poetry. Her work explores the relationship between past and present, transforming ancient materials into contemporary pieces that feel timeless and personal.

As she describes it: “Minerals are, to me, part of the poetry of Nature, and my jewelry is an attempt to capture for a moment this elusive and mysterious beauty. When I'm creating, I sometimes feel as if I'm a bit of a time traveler, bringing elements from the past into the future to create something in the present that is alive with both memory and possibility.”

In addition to her studio practice, Sarah is a respected collector and scholar of antique mourning and sentimental jewelry. She co-curated an exhibition on mourning jewelry and art with the Massachusetts Historical Society and authored a book on the subject.

Over the past decade, she has lectured extensively at museums and historical societies in the United States and abroad, and has presented educational programs—including a webinar for the American Society of Appraisers—focused on the history and significance of mourning and sentimental jewelry.