Shaw Jewelry

Shaw Jewelry is located on Main Street in the resort town of Northeast Harbor, adjacent to Acadia National Park. Our gallery overflows with an extensive collection of jewelry made by artists from all over the United States and Europe.

Shaw Jewelry is the home of extraordinary contemporary jewelry by national artists as well as the largest collection of work by Sam Shaw. It is located in Northeast Harbor, Maine, near the resort destination of Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. Shaw Jewelry Gallery is an expansive showroom with over 100 artists represented in a spacious, well-designed environment. You will find luxurious jewelry in high karat gold with precious stones, pearls and diamonds. You will also find exotic and unusual artist made pieces in alternative materials and challenging aesthetic. Shaw Jewelry Gallery also hosts 20 exhibitions each year showcasing painters, photographers, sculptors and object makers.

The studio gallery is open all year with the summer being the height of the season. We have 4 trained jewelers on staff that can perform the most difficult repairs or help you design an outstanding original piece. Custom work, personal service, attention to detail and exacting standards are hallmark traditions of Shaw jewelry. Since 1984 Shaw Jewelry has been under the ownership of Sam Shaw in the same location where his regular customers know they will be treated with utmost honesty and respect.

The jewelry of Sam Shaw is organized around three main themes or groups; Twig, beachstone and gemstone. The twig group begins by converting thin birch tree twigs to 18kt gold in a process akin to lost wax. I fabricate these into jewelry like a high-end topiary artist. The desired effect is a piece that appears to have grown on your wrist. Each piece is fabricated from these individually cast twigs through joining, soldering and bending. The texture and surface must be retained, the scale correct, the transitions natural.

In 1985 I created a collection of jewelry centered on the delight of wave worn beachstones. My interest stems from the intrinsic beauty and the understandings of the processes that formed them. That I would set beachstones as gemstones is a linear and logical conclusion of my combined interests. Beyond that, I am very engaged in the duality between precious (gold) and what is generally considered without worth (beach stone). By setting these humble stones in high karat gold constructions I am forcing the viewer to consider them as something of value.

The seduction and curiosity of gems from the earth is foremost in my gemstone group. Typically set in minimalist bezels or hammed discs, these colorful radiating gems are romanced with 22 kt gold. Sam always returns from the worlds largest gem show in Tucson with fresh baubles in delicious colors, textures and cuts. Each stone is individually selected for quality, desirability, and price. The beauty and complexity of the stone is favored above the settings in this collection.

Shaw Jewelry is remarkable in it’s ever changing variety of inventory and exhibitions including fabulous jewelers, Maharajah diamond jewelry from India, minimal European machine aesthetic, provocative and avante guarde pieces, thematic and narrative, South Sea pearls, and jewelry made from alternative materials including Formica, glass, and recycled materials. The range of price is also vast.

There are up to 20 exhibitions per year on subjects including all matter of jewelry themes, estate jewelry, modernist and regional painting, black & white photography, anti war medals, Asian artifacts, book making and Inuit carving.