A few months ago I had the pleasure of sitting down for a delightfully hearty Ethiopian lunch-- and a half-bottle of Diebolt-Vallois-- with Aquarian Thoughts designer, Nadirah Bostick. Designing since the tender age of 18, Nadirah, who is working on developing and marketing her line, currently lends her design and production chops to a few more established names in the game-- a strategy that will no doubt bolster her own grand entrée.

Nadirah's hand-crafted necklaces, bracelets, and earrings are influenced by organic forms and the healing properties of gems. Featured in this photo are her Royal Turquoise necklace and earrings. I'm head over heels for her work because it appeals to my penchant for the delicately dramatic. Stay tuned for more from this emerging designer who will soon add metal work to her repertoire. Shop here.

A piece of jewelry is in a sense an object that is not complete in itself. Jewelry is a "what is it?" until you make it relate to the body. The body is a component in design just as air and space are. Like line, form, and color, the body is a material to work with. It is one of the basic inspirations in creating form.

Art Smith

You made certain to high tail it over to the Brooklyn Museum for the Yinka Shonibare show, which closed on on September 20th. But did you get a chance to ogle any of Art Smith's creations? The modernist jeweler (d. 1982) was active during the middle of the 20th century, when he worked exclusively-- and to great, largely undocumented acclaim-- out of a storied workshop and retail space on West 4th Street in New York's West Village. He worked with copper, silver, gold and semi-prcious stones and was heavily influenced by his jazz musician friends and acquaintances.

21 magnificent pieces, along with some of the Cooper Union trained artist's tools, photographs, sketches, and other archival material are on view at the Brooklyn Museum until March 14, 2010. If you won't be making a pilgrimage to NYC anytime soon, you can get your fix with a purchase of the exhibition catalog, From the Village to Vogue: Modernist Jewelry of ART SMITH.

Photos are from the Flickr stream of egotechnique.

My favorite looks from Duro Olowu's Spring 2010 presentation, which took place last week in London. Photos from Style.com.

Clicked into Habitually Chic today (as I do everyday and from whence these photos were culled) and caught wind that artist Glenn Ligon is featured in the latest J. Crew catalog, along with rising star Lucien Smith and five others. Find out what Glenn and company think about the interplay between art and fashion on J. Crew's Open Studio site.

I can't remember when, where, or how I first came across the work of Frank Bowling, but what a treat it is. The Guyanese-born, British painter (b. 1936) has been turning out his ethereal abstract paintings for over forty years. Shown above are, "Sheep's Head (1960)," "Fishes, Wishes, and Uncle Jack (1989)" and, "Flambouria's Choice (1983)," respectively. Bowling is represented by Rollo Contemporary Art in London and in 2005 was elected the first Black member of England's 200 year-old Royal Academy of Art.

"If I hadn't gone to New York [in the 60s]," Bowling says in Rose Jones' documentary on the painter, "I wouldn't have been able to develop as an artist." The consensus in England at the time was that there was "no room" for an "unusual, Black artist." In New York, "there were oodles of artists who also happened to be Black and who were having their struggles with the scene there." Bowling felt an immediate kinship with this group, and also discovered that the "sharpness" of the critical American art world provided-- and continues to provide-- "sustaining energy."

Images culled from ArtNet, where you can view much more of Bowling's work, as well as the work of the other artists in Rollo Contemporary's portfolio.

I decided to learn how to surf after I'd had recurring dreams about wave riding for at least a year. This decision required that I learn how to swim, which I did, rather quickly and uncannily well. In August of last year, I took my first surfing lesson. I loved it. In February, I happened upon a girl who was looking to unload a longboard. I picked up the board from her apartment in the Village, and carried it for about 20 Manhattan blocks to Penn Station, where my chariot awaited. I'd never made so many fast friends in my life as I had that evening.

Right now it's too cold to surf in my neck of the woods as far as I'm concerned, but I know of one place where the surf's always up and the water's always fairly warm: Robertsport, Liberia. I've made mention of Robertsport a couple of times. The most recent mention was here. The first was to share with you the film, Sliding Liberia, a film about an American kid who "discovers" world-class breaks in the gloriously sleepy fishing village where my father and his father spent their boyhoods, as students at a boarding school perched on a hill overlooking "God's country." Much of the film is dedicated to the story of Alfred Lomax, a young man who becomes Liberia's first surfer after a harrowing turn of events.

I didn't get to meet Alfred during my recent pilgrimage to Robertsport, but I did get to catch up with his brother, whose name-- I am very embarrassed to admit-- I've forgotten. He was a dashing, gracious young fellow, and kind enough to let me capture a few snapshots. He surfs for hours on end everyday, but what he really wants to do, he says, is finish school. He hopes to become a computer engineer.

I love these bracelets from Monique Péan, who in April became the first fine jeweler to win an Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation Award. The erstwhile investment banker launched her line in 2006 and has always been committed to sustainability. Péan founded a charity that provides scholarships to underprivileged students in Haiti, and donates a portion of her sales to Charity:Water, for whom she designed a collection inspired by H2O, using recycled gold.

I absolutely love these electrifying but still vaguely haunting paintings by Senegalese artist Soly Cissé. His work was featured at the Milan furniture fair last month as part of Stephen Burks' "M'Afrique" installation for Italian furniture manufacturer, Moroso. Read about it on iconeye. Also part of the installation was the work of Nubian artist Fathi Hassan (whom I'll be featuring shortly) and the photographs of architect David Adjaye.