Jeremy Isamu Irvin is an internationally exhibiting artist and educator based in Washington state, USA. Born and raised in Hawai’i, he grew up surrounded by artwork from East Asia and the Pacific. His visual style draws inspiration from his heritage, as well as from his love of Modern art. He received his BA in Economics but developed a love for silversmithing and jewelry design during his studies, culminating in four years of jewelry courses, an apprenticeship, and a Master of Fine Art. During his studies, he began experimenting with the implementation of nontraditional materials into his work as an exploration of jewelry’s potential.

However, he believes in the importance of remaining connected to the craft and discipline that he fell in love with, and still relies on traditional silverwork and fabrication methods in every piece. He has had work selected for exhibitions and publications such as the Society of North American Goldsmith’s Jewelry and Metals Survey of innovative work, the Museum of Arts and Design’s MAD About Jewelry exhibition, and Milano Jewelry Week.

Jeremy Isamu Irvin’s work is based on the hybridization of convention and progress. He fell in love with jewelry while learning silversmithing; the ritual of making objects according to tradition and the reverence given to process and technique are integral to him as a maker. However, he sees his work as more than a perpetuation of tradition, but rather an expansion of jewelry’s potential.
Irvin’s jewelry incorporates nontraditional materials with silversmithing to bridge the past with the present. His current body of work utilizes a recycled paper composite combined with silver. The paper forms the fronts of pieces, what viewers most easily see, while silver forms the backside of each piece, a conceptual and physical framework.

Paper was historically revered in many cultures, and is integral to many forms of fine art. When it is used and discarded, it loses many of these associations. However, by carving and utilizing a material created out of this refuse in jewelry, it is converted once more, recontextualized back into a precious setting.