Meet the artist
A piece of a lifetime
Mona Van Riper calls this Bisbee turquoise squash blossom set “a piece of a lifetime.”
Bisbee turquoise · 22 oz 18K gold · VVS diamonds
Shop the set
Meet Mona Van Riper
Mona made her first piece of jewelry in 1976, when she was fourteen and a half. She’s a goldsmith who designs and fabricates everything herself, and in 2026 she’s marking 50 years at the bench.
This set took her about seven months. We talked with her about how she made it.
I.
It started with the turquoise
Bisbee is the rarest turquoise in the world. These stones came out of a vintage squash blossom from the 1970s. Mona bought that piece, took the stones out, and built something new around them.
Before she started, she studied traditional squash blossoms and the work of other artists she admires. She photographed pieces and looked hard at how they were proportioned and put together. Then she set out to make her own.
She calls her style “nouvelle traditional”: traditional forms, redrawn with a contemporary eye.
50
Years at the bench
5
Months of full-time work
1+ lb
Of gold processed by hand
1 of 1
Never to be made again
II.
The secret is in the symmetry
Mona matched the turquoise cabochons by hand and re-cut some of them so the necklace would sit in balance. She photographs every stone before and after cutting.
The stones and blossoms come in three graduated sizes. They get larger as the necklace moves down the body, so it follows the shape of the person wearing it.
III.
She made her own gold
Mona didn’t order sheet gold. She was given coins, scrap and casting grain, and she turned it into usable metal herself. She melted and alloyed it, cast it into small ingots, then hammered the ingots and ran them through her rolling mill until she had sheet. More than a pound of gold went through her hands this way.
She fabricated each bead from that sheet, then soldered and finished the necklace. It took about five months of full-time work, spread over seven months. Partway through, she flew to Bulgaria to take an art class.
IV.
Built to carry the weight
A squash blossom is heavy, and Mona has seen plenty of traditional ones break because the weight wasn’t supported. So she worked out where the load would go before she built anything.
The necklace hangs on multiple strands of Foxtail cable, with tubing and a transition she engineered between them. The Naja is attached with jump rings instead of a rigid joint, so it swings a little when you move.
“Function and form. It has to work or you can’t sell it.”
V.
Look inside the blossoms
Each blossom holds a small Sleeping Beauty turquoise bead. The beads hang loose and move when the necklace does, and most people don’t notice them at first.
Mona laughed when she described them and called the movement “sexy.”
VI.
The earrings and ring
Mona made the earrings first. After the necklace was done, she looked at the turquoise she had left and decided the set needed a ring, so she made one.
The diamonds carry through the earrings and ring, so all three pieces read as one suite.
“How many times in your career do you get to make something that is worth a house?”
VII.
Fifty years at the bench
Mona has been making jewelry since 1976, and she’s still designing and fabricating.
She spent decades away from Taos, including years as a Class IV and V whitewater guide on the Taos Box. She recently moved back. Her own shop is in storage for now, so she works out of a friend’s home, close to some of the artists who influenced her when she was young.
Not long ago she watched an old slideshow her father had made. Looking at those photos, it made sense to her why she makes the jewelry she does. She grew up around people who made beautiful things by hand.
About Mona
Mona is serious about her work and funny about most other things. In one conversation she covered goldsmithing, river running, old friends, the class in Bulgaria, and her plan to get jewelry onto TV news anchors so people can see how it looks when it’s worn.
After fifty years she still sounds excited about jewelry, and she’s still asking what would happen if she tried something a different way.
Behind the scenes
Mona and the set
Follow the set from Mona’s first stone layout to the finished pieces at her bench.
IX.
The set at a glance
- Squash blossom necklace with matching earrings and ring
- Vintage Bisbee turquoise from a 1970s squash blossom
- 22 oz of 18K gold, alloyed and rolled out by Mona
- VVS diamonds through all three pieces
- Sleeping Beauty turquoise beads inside the blossoms
- Hand-matched stones in three graduated sizes
- Multi-strand Foxtail cable and a Naja that moves on jump rings
- About five months of full-time work
One of one
Made by Mona Van Riper
Mona finished this set in her fiftieth year at the bench. There is only one.