What I Curate in Fine Jewelry and Why

Bravais is two things at once. Here's how they fit together — and why the Stack Pack exists at all.

By Abigail N. Koppes Ph.D.  ·  Bravais Fine Jewelry  ·  Somerville, MA

I want to tell you something I've been thinking about since I launched the Stack Pack: most jewelry brands are one thing. A workshop. A manufacturer. A vintage reseller. A wholesale operation dressed up as a boutique.

Bravais is two things, deliberately.

There's the work I make with my hands, Stone & Wild, the handmade bridal collection, custom and bespoke commissions. Wax-carved originals, one at a time, using gemstones I've been collecting for over a decade. Pieces that don't exist anywhere else and never will again.

And then there's the Stack Pack. A carefully chosen collection of pieces I source and curate rather than make. Chains, bracelets, earrings, bands, pendants, necklaces. Pieces I didn't carve, but that I selected, priced honestly, and stand behind, as they are not my specialty in my art, but pieces I use with my art.

I used to wonder if I needed to explain that distinction. I've decided I do, and not as a disclaimer, but as an invitation. Because the reasoning behind both is the same, and understanding it tells you something real about how this studio works.

The Stack Pack Mixed Shape Bezel Line Bracelet

Why the Stack Pack Exists

When I started Bravais, I was building handmade pieces in wax at my bench late at night after teaching all day. Slowly. Carefully. One at a time. The stones I work with are rare sapphires, tourmalines, garnets-- collector specimens are not interchangeable. They take time to source and time to design around.

What I noticed was that my customers wanted more than one piece. They wanted a whole wardrobe. A chain to wear every day. A simple pair of hoops. A solitaire bracelet. Charm necklaces. A stack. The kind of jewelry that doesn't compete with the statement piece; it completes it.

I couldn't carve that at the rate people wanted it. And I didn't need to, because the best craftsmen in fine jewelry already make it beautifully. What was missing was a jeweler willing to source those pieces honestly, price them transparently, and curate them with real taste.

That's what the Stack Pack is. I source primarily through Stuller and Rio Grande, the same suppliers the fine jewelry industry relies on, and I price at 2× cost. That's it. No triple markup. No invented retail price. Just the cost of the piece and the overhead of running a one-person, online-only studio.

Chapter 6 covered the pricing logic in detail if you want the full breakdown. The short version: 2× is what I need to sustain the business. The industry standard is 2.5 to 3× or higher. I'm not interested in charging more than I need.

Wax carving for The Sector Ring

What Goes Into a Curation Decision

Not everything that crosses my screen makes it into the Stack Pack. I'm making real choices about materials, construction, wearability, style, and how a piece fits into a stack with something I've made by hand.

Stone & Wild and the Handmade Side

While the Stack Pack is growing, Stone & Wild is the part of Bravais I think about most personally.

Stone & Wild is handmade originals, one-of-one pieces built from collector gemstones I've sourced over more than a decade. Tourmalines from Afghanistan. Sapphires with colors that don't exist in the commercial market. Parti-color stones, color-shift stones, stones that behave differently in sunlight than they do under incandescent light. Stones that make experienced gemologists stop what they're doing.

Every Stone & Wild piece starts in wax at my bench. I source the stones, carve the piece by hand, send it to my American casting house, set the stones myself, finish and package it myself. The process takes weeks. The pricing reflects that: 3× material cost minimum, based on labor, technique, and the rarity of what's in the setting.

The handmade bridal collection and custom commissions operate the same way. If you want a ring built around a collector stone from my personal inventory, a bespoke toi et moi with two stones from my decade of sourcing, or a commission built entirely around something you've found in the world — that's a conversation that starts with an inquiry and ends with something singular.

The Stack Pack and Stone & Wild are not in competition. They serve different moments. The Stack Pack is for every day, for the chain you put on and forget about, for the studs that live in your ears, for the eternity band that stacks beside the ring you already own. Stone & Wild is for the piece you remember acquiring as a truely one-of-a-kind handmade piece of art.

What's Coming Next

The curated bridal collection is in progress and will be the next major addition. Lab-grown diamond centers in non-standard cuts like elongated cushions, oval rose-cuts, marquise rose-cuts, Asscher step cuts, octagon, and traditional cuts like emerald and brilliant, paired with mountings I've chosen because they suit the geometry of the stone. The same transparency: center stone sold separately from mounting, both priced at 2×, nothing hidden about the construction or the grade.

2.05ct 7.65x7.48x4.84mm VVS2 N Modern Antique Old Mine Cut 🇨🇦

I'll also be adding pieces from the Misfit Diamonds Canadian origin collection of natural diamonds in antique cuts and unusual shapes that don't exist anywhere in the calibrated market. Old Mine cuts. Hexagons. Lozenge brilliants. Kite step cuts. Stones with real provenance and a story, available by inquiry and paired with handmade Bravais settings built around each stone, specifically.

More soon. Everything will be labeled. Nothing will be hidden.

Open Gap Two-Stone Ring featuring 2 1/2 ctw lab diamonds and 11g 14k CSC gold.