James Christian “Managed Chaos”

The “Scrap Buckles” were some of James Stegman’s first truly experimental pieces, and he’s returned to the theme once again after several years. For him, the building process is as fun and freeing as the end result itself. The buckle’s face features an energetic medley of fragments: yellow and rose gold, sterling silver, & yellow and blue diamonds chief among them. James also adorned the back of the buckle with a dark jester motif—hence the buckle’s secondary name, Retreat of the Dark Fool—representing a departure from his recent exploration of some serious, occasionally melancholic themes and a return to his early creative roots in optimism and generative energy.