Jeanine Payer is a San Francisco-based jewelry designer who engraves poetry onto precious metals for her emotionally engaging yet subtle jewelry collections. Her international following includes celebrities like Jessica Lange, Susan Sarandon, Mick Jagger and Johnny Depp. Payer grew up in an artistic family who encouraged creative expression. She believes her pieces should have mystery and be both powerful and private. Payer's jewelry often includes the words of poets and are chosen by customers to mark important life moments.

1. Jeanine Payer
Poetry hand-engraved onto precious metals is how San Francisco-based jewelry designer
Jeanine Payer creates her collections of emotionally engaging yet subtle jewelry. There
are few things as intimate as wearing poetry against your skin, as many of her clients can
attest. Her international following includes Jessica Lange, Susan Sarandon, Mick Jagger
and Johnny Depp. Payer has also worked closely to design custom pieces for Meg Ryan,
Seal, Sheryl Crow, and Debra Messing.
Growing up in Southern California, Payer was surrounded by an artistic family who
encouraged her to pursue creative expression in all its forms, whether it was keeping
journals or studying sculpture and drawing. "I believe in pieces having a wonder about
them. I like making things that are at once both powerful and private" says Payer.
One of Payer's first creations was designed as a gift: a tiny book engraved with a beloved
poem by Rainer Maria Rilke that only the wearer knew was there. Today, Payer's designs
continue to be graced with the words of both contemporary and ancient voices such as
Emily Dickinson, Rumi, Lao Tzu, Jane Hirshfield, and Ovid. "Each person brings their
own particular meaning to the jewelry, therefore each piece becomes highly endowed"
says the designer. These pieces become talismanic as they are chosen to mark emotional
and philosophical moments in each person's life.
Payer and her highly-skilled team of fifteen metalsmiths craft three collections a year in a
bustling atelier in the historic Phelan Building, San Francisco's original jewelry center.
The jewelry is on display in her retail store, located just a few floors below the workshop,
as well as in over 250 specialty stores worldwide including Fred Segal in Los Angeles,
Barneys New York and Japan.