Since its inception in 2016, Seal & Scribe has been recasting antique intaglio seals into pieces that are at once timeless and disarmingly modern. For founder and designer Shari Cohen, the journey began with a singular mission: to breathe new life into these miniature masterpieces of the past. But as the years unfolded, so too did her creative ambition.
By 2022, the designer found herself drawn to a broader narrative. “I kept returning to the essence of what makes jewelry meaningful,” she reflects. “It was still about beauty, still about the signature Seal & Scribe language, but I wanted to move beyond intaglios as the focal point.”
While working on the Love Letters Collection, a project that unfolded over two-and-a-half years, new forms began to emerge. Her “side sketches” became a portal into cocktail rings: ideas too bold, too singular to house a seal, but rich with potential in a different setting. “What if I didn’t use seals as the center stones, and instead I chose beautiful stones and worked the seals into the design in another way?” That led Shari to try various settings and styles. And it was from this space of thinking that Hidden Messages was born. A collection of bold and bright rings that asks: How can the spirit of the seal be reimagined for today? How can the sentimental, the secretive, be encased in something that feels not just fresh, but very now?
And in this new line, the gemstones themselves take on a starring role. The play of light and translucency of the beautiful Mojave Desert Chalcedony, and its very subtle adularescence, prompted the designer to seek out the stone alongside others that would allow her to capture the natural beauty of popular holiday spots such as Cannes, Monaco, St. Tropez, and Portofino, among others. “Show me a bag of beautiful cabochons and sugarloafs, and I will show you someone who is captivated by their inner beauty,” the designer adds. “There’s something very organic about them, the way they feel under your fingertips, their shape, their soft glow. There’s a mystical center that I can get lost in.”
From opaque turquoise and coral to luminous chrysoprase and aquamarine sugarloafs, the collection dances with light and shadow. “That big aquamarine sugarloaf — it’s like falling into a watery wonderland,” she says. “We set it in high-polished white gold to mimic the feeling of snorkeling in the Riviera, the light filtering through crystalline blue water. It’s always moving, always showing you something different.” The St. Tropez ring, a vibrant ode to sun-drenched days and Mediterranean glamor, employs a hand-milled setting. “To me, just the name ‘Saint-Tropez’ evokes a playground of elegance, but with exuberance and joyfulness — not stuffy at all, more like all play, no work,” she says.
Originally envisioning tiny turquoise cabs, the design took a turn during collaboration with her jeweler. “He suggested we custom-cut the turquoise into little plugs and embed them flush into the gold, nestled among diamonds. It made the turquoise feel almost like a hidden code; less conventional, more surprising,” explains Shari.
Hidden Messages is jewelry as storytelling. It lingers on in the mind — alive with imagination, and the quiet thrill of travelling to beautiful destinations.
