Eva Fehren Sputnik 4 in 18 Karat Yellow Gold with White Diamonds

Eva Zuckerman doesn’t need a verdant field or beachside abode to spark ideas. “A lot of designers are inspired by nature,” says the founder of Eva Fehren fine jewelry, “but first and foremost, I am a born-and-raised New Yorker. I’ve always been attracted to the aesthetics of New York City — to things as simple as scaffolding, architectural details and cracks in the sidewalk. It’s my landscape.”

And like a true New Yorker, Zuckerman entered the world of fine jewelry with the intention of shaking things up a bit. When she launched Eva Fehren, in 2011, “there wasn’t a ton of fashion fine jewelry in the market,” she notes. “I thought there was something interesting about being a bit irreverent in that space.” It was a chance to create the kind of work she didn’t see a lot of — a “tougher, more minimal aesthetic.”

Zuckerman studied painting at the Cooper Union, in Manhattan’s East Village, and after graduation, she used her portfolio to interview for jewelry-design work. “When I started making jewelry, something really clicked for me,” she says. “I just soaked everything up like a sponge.”

After a few years working for others, she was ready to express her own creative vision and launch her own company. (“Fehren” is a play on Zuckerman’s mother’s last name “Fehrenbacher,” which is also the designer’s middle name.) It proved to be in tune with the zeitgeist: Her original X-Ring was a design home run. Delicate but not fragile, it evoked the crisscross pattern she saw everywhere in New York, from water towers to the Williamsburg Bridge. It has since been copied extensively. At first, she worried, “What if I don’t come up with anything else?” A decade later, that has clearly not been a problem.

For this committed city dweller, even the worst of times had a touch of urban idyll. During the pandemic lockdown, she recalls, “my husband and I would walk the empty streets. I got wrapped up in how beautiful my city is and nostalgic for its energy and spirit. I fell in love with New York all over again.” Will this fresh enchantment inspire new designs? Time will tell.

Find a collection of Eva Fehren rings, necklaces and other jewelry today on 1stDibs.