Award-winning jewellery designer Adam Neeley recently debuted Dalí’s Garden, his latest high jewellery collection at PAD Paris. The collection features an exceptional range of one-of-a-kind jewels and is a befitting tribute to the surreal artist.
A jewellery designer, gemmologist, and goldsmith, Adam Neeley has spent over 25 years crafting exceptional jewellery that has pushed the envelope of design, artistry and technical prowess. Based in California, he has garnered numerous national and international jewellery design awards, and his pieces are part of the collections at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, the Alfie Norville Gem and Mineral Museum and the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) Museum, among others.
Neeley’s Dalí’s Garden high jewellery collection is his most innovative to date. Like many of us, Neeley spent part of the Pandemic lockdown trying new recipes. However, instead of turning to YouTube and well-known food influencers, Neeley began exploring the eccentric recipes in Salvador and Gala Dalí’s cookbook, Les diners de Gala.
After one particularly delicious evening, Neeley slipped into a dream where Salvador and Gala invited him to a surreal dinner party. There, he found himself in the couple’s enchanted garden, populated by hauntingly beautiful flora and luminous fauna. It was in this dreamscape that the first seeds of Dalí’s Garden took root.
The collection is Neeley’s interpretation of that surreal dream. “Dalí’s Garden began as a lucid dream, so vivid it felt real. Now, through these jewels, that dream has taken form. Like Dalí, I am fascinated by the convergence of the conscious and unconscious, the space where imagination and intention meet to create something entirely new,” Neeley notes.
Looking at the pieces, it is clear that the collection sits at the intersection of dreams and reality, where the shimmering silhouettes of the jewels represent the flora, fauna and cosmic symbols Neeley recalls from his dream.
The collection pulls you in with its bold colours and distinctive silhouettes. While the garden inspiration is unmistakable, the pieces possess an ethereal, dreamlike quality. Anodized titanium in vibrant hues, from dusty rose bronze to glowing ombrés of green, blue, pink, violet and turquoise, captures the otherworldly hues of Neeley’s dream.
At the same time, the expertly cut and faceted coloured gemstones add brilliance, depth and focal points to the contours of the pieces, while gold and platinum provide weight, balance, and enduring value. Together, these different elements elevate the pieces into wearable art.
“As an artist, gemologist, and metalsmith, Dalí’s Garden has pushed me to the very edge of possibility. At times the process has felt daunting, but each challenge has only recharged my creativity. The results are nothing short of breathtaking, and I am thrilled to finally share these jewels with the world,” Neeley observes.
Unveiling the collection at PAD Paris was a deliberate choice. “Paris, as ground zero for the Surrealist movement, is the most fitting place for the full debut. To return there with this collection feels like bringing the dream back to its source, surrounded by the greatest voices in art and design,” explains Neeley.
I sat down with Neeley recently to discuss the evolution of his design repertoire and why he has worked with titanium for his latest high jewellery collection.
After earning your Graduate Gemologist diploma from GIA, you trained in Florence under master goldsmith Gio Carbone. What did that apprenticeship teach you that still resonates in your work today?
After earning your Graduate Gemologist diploma from GIA, you trained in Florence under master goldsmith Gio Carbone. What did that apprenticeship teach you that still resonates in your work today?
My time in Florence was transformative. Studying under Gio Carbone was less about technique alone and more about absorbing a philosophy of craftsmanship. He taught me to slow down, to honor tradition, and to understand that every curve and detail has meaning. Florence itself, with its deep history of art and architecture, instilled in me the idea that jewelry can be more than ornament. It can be sculpture of wearable art, and can be a form of storytelling.
That apprenticeship still resonates in everything I create today. The precision, the reverence for materials, and the belief that true artistry comes from balancing innovation with timeless craft, all of that traces back to those years in Italy.
You are often described as a “modern alchemist,” famous for inventing custom alloys like SpectraGold™. What drove you to invest the time and effort into achieving this seamless ombré precious gold alloy?
The idea for SpectraGold™ came from my fascination with transformation. Since I was young, I’ve been captivated by how light, color, and material can shift before your eyes. Traditional alloys offered beautiful tones of gold, but I wanted something that felt more alive, something that could flow seamlessly from one color to another the way a sunset moves across the sky.
Developing SpectraGold™ was years of trial and error, melting and experimenting until I found the exact balance that allowed colors to transition without interruption, and the perfect hardness. It was challenging, but that pursuit is at the core of my work. To me, being called a “modern alchemist” is about pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with metals, turning the familiar into something unexpected and extraordinary.
With over 25 years of experience, how has your design philosophy evolved since you first started?
When I first started, my focus was on mastering technique, how to cut a stone, how to shape metal, how to bring a design to life with precision. Over time, that foundation gave me the freedom to experiment and to trust my instincts as an artist.
My philosophy has evolved into more of a distillation of beauty, a synthesis of design. I want each piece to hold a sense of wonder, to feel as though it could not exist any other way. The more experience I have gained, the more I have realized that true artistry is about balance, respecting tradition while daring to create something new.
What is the most challenging piece you have created so far, and what did you learn from that experience?
One of the most technically and materially challenging works I have created recently is the Oceana Earrings. The design itself was conceived as an homage to the organic form of a mollusk, so from the outset I knew the success of the piece would depend entirely on sourcing an extraordinary suite of pearls that could support that narrative.
I reached out to Gina Latendresse and shared my vision. Over the course of eleven months, she carefully searched through more than fifty years of her family’s collection to assemble a matching, graduating suite of twelve rare Natural American pearls. Each pearl is of exceptional quality, and together they form a cohesive progression that feels both intentional and alive. Their provenance and rarity imbue the earrings with a profound sense of continuity and cultural significance.
With the pearls secured, I began the labor-intensive process of crafting the earrings in SpectraGold. The fabrication alone required more than 200 hours, as the material must be worked in a way that preserves its seamless chromatic gradient. To complement this effect, I selected an ombré arrangement of canary-colored diamonds that transition in harmony with the SpectraGold, moving seamlessly from rich yellow into white.
The completed suite of pearls anchors the composition and gives the Oceana Earrings their soul. These pearls are not only visually extraordinary, but they also represent a rare and meaningful chapter of American gemstone history, making the earrings both a contemporary work of art and a tribute to the legacy of American natural pearls.
When designing high jewellery, do you start with the design first or the gemstones and materials, and how does that process shape the final piece?
For me, the process is never linear. Sometimes a gemstone speaks first. A rare color or an unusual cut will spark an idea, and the design grows out of the stone’s personality. Other times, I begin with a vision, a form that comes to me almost sculpturally, and then I search for the gems and materials that will bring it to life.
What shapes the final piece is the dialogue between the two. My background as a gemologist gives me a deep respect for the inherent qualities of stones, but my training as a metalsmith and designer pushes me to reimagine how those stones can live within a form. The balance of listening to the material and following the idea is where the magic happens, and that is how each piece ultimately finds its voice.
You have won numerous awards and accolades for your work. How have these recognitions influenced your direction as a designer?
I feel incredibly honored by the awards and accolades I’ve received over the years, but I’ve never seen them as the goal. For me, the greatest reward is the creative journey itself and seeing collectors connect deeply with a piece. Recognition does validate that I’m on the right path, and it encourages me to keep pushing boundaries, to take risks with new materials and forms.
What I have learned is that honors are not an endpoint but a spark. They remind me that innovation matters, that there is an audience hungry for jewelry that is both art and adornment. In that sense, the recognition fuels me to go further, to create work that continues to surprise, delight, and inspire.
Looking to the future, what new materials or techniques are you excited to explore in your work?
Right now titanium is my great challenge and my great fascination. It is incredibly strong, notoriously difficult to shape, and yet it offers possibilities unlike any other metal: brilliant color through anodizing or heat, a lightness that allows for bold scale, and a resilience that makes it almost sculptural. With my latest high jewellery collection I have been pushing titanium further than ever before, coaxing it into forms that feel both surreal and organic.
Looking ahead, I am excited to continue exploring how advanced technologies can meet traditional craftsmanship. 3D printing at aerospace level precision, new alloys, experimental finishes, these are tools that let me take what begins as a dream or sketch and translate it into reality. What excites me most is not just mastering a new material, but discovering how it can expand the language of jewelry, allowing me to create pieces that feel alive with color, movement, and imagination.
Featured Image: Camille Ring – diamond, white gold and titanium, Dalí’s Garden high jewellery collection
