Sandra Zacharia is an art jeweler drawn to transformation, to how metal moves, remembers, and becomes.

Her relationship with material began in the textile studios of New York City. After studying at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Sandra spent years designing fabrics for the fashion industry before moving to Israel, where she continued her work in textiles. Over time, her attention shifted from the surface of cloth to the possibilities of metal. She went on to study jewelry at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, finding in metal a material that could hold both strength and movement.

Today, working from her studio in Maryland, Sandra creates sculptural jewelry through forging, forming, and an intuitive process of discovery. Clean lines meet rugged textures; graceful forms carry the evidence of the hammer and the hand. Rather than beginning with a fixed outcome, she allows each piece to evolve through making, responding to the material as it stretches, folds, curves, and resists.

Her work explores rhythm, movement, and the expressive power of hand-forged form. There is an intimacy in the marks left behind: evidence of pressure, heat, repetition, and time. These are not imperfections to be erased, but part of the language of the piece.

Sandra thinks of jewelry as sculpture for the body. A piece changes when it is worn. It moves, catches light, settles against skin, and becomes part of the person who chooses it. Her work is made slowly and individually, for those who are drawn to objects that reveal themselves over time and carry the unmistakable presence of the hand.

Alongside her studio practice, Sandra teaches jewelry-making to children through Artjewelsz, the after-school program she has led for nearly a decade. There, the emphasis is less on getting something “right” than on discovering what can happen when an idea is followed with curiosity and confidence.

For Sandra, that sense of discovery remains at the heart of making: beginning with material, paying attention, and allowing something unexpected to emerge.