Max's

“The greatest satisfaction from a piece of jewelry is not wanting to put it down. The mystery behind this irrepressible attraction to the treasure is my constant muse.  A successful piece is one that does justice to the inherent wonder within the raw materials. Each finished product is a distillation, an essence, of the conversation between artist and material. In this way, every piece is both self-indulgent, as well as selfless because it is now passed onto someone else to interact with. My hope is that they will not want to put it down.”

Jacob Albee was born in 1976 and raised in the woods of Strafford, Vermont. Jewelry design is one of the paths he pursued from a young age. A graduate of the University of Vermont in 1999, he achieved a double-degree in Wildlife Biology and Studio Art. He was on track to be a raptor biologist professionally, who made jewelry on the side.Before graduating from UVM, he began working at the bench for award-winning designer Timothy Grannis, who had just opened a designer gallery in Burlington. After seven years at the bench with Timothy, Jacob left Grannis Gallery to pursue his own career as a designer goldsmith, with wildlife biology on the side. He has travelled extensively in Kenya and Ethiopia, doing conservation work with raptors there, as well as procuring gemstones from the region. While difficult to overlap his two areas of interest, travel and field work provide countless hours alone to reflect, refine design ideas and drawinspiration from the world.