Keiko Mita

"I am happiest when I can help people create memories through my jewelry."

Keiko Mita creates lasting modern designs through themes based on the spectacular scenery and beautiful wildflowers on the often stormy and isolated island where she was born. Her Japanese heritage and extensive travels are also strong influences. Working primarily in gold and mixed metals, she combines metal textures and complex shapes with diamonds, pearls, and other precious and semi-precious stones. Her pieces range from geometric to organic and focus on movement, texture, and color.

Mita combines traditional metalsmithing techniques with new technology. While she is very good at drawing and painting by hand, more recently she has used computer illustration to make more realistic images for customers. The method she uses to create her jewelry depends on the design. To create her core "Sand Dune" line, she carves organic forms in wax and casts them in gold and/or silver before soldiering them together. Among the many techniques she uses are sawing, hammering, piercing, forming, carving and laser welding/engraving. Her pieces are finished by applying texture and polishing.

Mita discovered metal work while studying fine arts at Hokkaido University of Education, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree. Later she earned an Associate Degree with a major in jewelry design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. Initially she produced large embossed works, but eventually she turned her attention to sculpture, objects of art and ultimately jewelry. In 1995, her first jewelry collections were produced for the Japanese market by a high-end jewelry company based in Osaka, Japan that specialized in 18k gold, platinum, diamonds, and precious stones. In 2002, she moved to New York City and founded K.Mita Design.