Variance Objects

Nicole Rimedio, the artist behind Variance Objects, creates jewelry that highlights the natural beauty of raw materials. Her jewellry shows the earth, fire, and hand that it came from.  While she received her BA in Architecture and Urbanism from Smith College, and her master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from UC Berkeley, making jewellery has always been her path.  Nicole founded Variance in 2013 with her partner Scott Zankman.  Scott captures the beauty of Nicole's jewellery in his photography of each piece she creates; he also manages sales and operations for Variance.  They both have a passion for gemstones and together they source the finest natural and unusual gem specimens and rough rock. Nicole and Scott live and work in Santa Cruz, California.

For each piece of jewellery, the design and the process is inspired by the materials. Each of the unique stones used in the jewellery is cut and polished by the duo themselves where they look to capture the nature of the stone; preserving its inherent textures, colour patterns and light qualities. Uniquely they blend and melt metals together, oxidising silver parts or only semi-polishing the final piece so that the jewellery brightens with wear over time.