Claire Zurkowski is an experimental jewelry designer and physicist. In 2021, Claire received her Ph.D. in Geophysical Sciences with an emphasis in mineral physics from the University of Chicago. In the fall of 2021, during a postdoctoral fellowship in planetary science at the Carnegie Institution for Science, Claire began taking jewelry classes with goldsmith Daniel Valencia. Claire has always been dually interested in science and object making, and as her research dealt with metals under extreme pressures and temperatures—conditions relevant to deep planetary interiors—she gravitated toward the metallurgical processes of jewelry making. The interplay of structural order, pressure, temperature, and chemistry that defines planetary materials also underlies her artistic exploration of metal and stone.

After this year-long postdoc, Claire began working as a condensed-matter physicist in the Bay Area in 2022. During this time, she also began studying computer-aided design for jewelry under Akiyo Matsuoka, focusing on SubD (subdivision surface) modeling. This form of digital modeling facilitates the complex, continuous geometries that Claire likes to push the boundaries of in her work. Through this interface, Claire sculpts forms that are both mathematical and organic, much like the minerals and metallic alloys that drive her ongoing scientific work. Claire continues to create work that responds to the contrasting material properties of metal and stone, often taking a scientific approach to design and fabrication.

Claire grew up on a farm in Havre de Grace, Maryland, and currently runs her studio out of Oakland, California. She continues to work as both a physicist and jewelry designer and fabricator. Along with designing pieces for galleries, Claire also enjoys making custom work for clients and teaching jewelry workshops.

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