Founded in 2015, the Sophie Buhai studio creates jewelry, objects, and collectible works in close collaboration with master metalsmiths and artisans in the Los Angeles area.

Sophie Buhai is a designer practicing at the confluence of jewelry, object, and sculpture.

She works in sterling silver, her signature material, as well as 18-karat gold, pearls, wood, urushi lacquer, and precious and semiprecious stones. Her process distills an eclectic range of cultural research—from ancient adornments to Surrealism—into a distinct and precise visual language.

Sophie’s work has been exhibited in leading design galleries including Galerie Anne-Sophie Duval in Paris, Seventh House Gallery and Trevor Cheney Gallery in Los Angeles, and Fondazione Dries Van Noten in Venice, Italy.

She is inspired by designers who crossed the boundaries between jewelry and object, such as Line Vautrin, Elsa Peretti, Jean Despres, Claude Lalanne, William Spratling, and Josef Hoffmann and the Vienna Secession.

The Sophie Buhai studio operates independently with a small team in a 1986 postmodern house, recalling a bygone era of design ateliers creating at an independent scale with rigorous attention to quality and detail.

Sophie Buhai pieces are produced in close collaboration with master artisans and silversmiths in the Los Angeles area.

New collections are presented in Paris several times a year. The Paris showroom is situated in the 7th arrondissement on Rue de Babylone.

The first exhibition at the Paris decorative-arts gallery upon its 2025 reopening after a renovation by the architect and designer Sylvain Dubuisson, Jewelry Objects featured twenty one-of-a-kind and limited-edition objects, many created specifically for the show, displayed in dialogue with Art Deco furniture and antiques curated by the gallery director Julie Blum.

In 2024, Trevor Cheney Gallery in Los Angeles staged an exhibition of pieces by Sophie ranging from jewelry to collectible objects, presented with the gallery’s collection of antique and collectible furnishings.

Sophie Buhai’s approach to sourcing, design, and manufacturing is carefully considered, with the intent to create lasting objects with a sense of social and environmental responsibility.

Sophie hand-selects unique stones and unusual materials each year at the Tucson Gem Fair. Instead of designing around pre-carved stones, she prefers to create her own stone forms, an atypical practice in jewelrymaking. Her shapes are modeled in wax and revised meticulously until each form is perfected; the stones are then carved and polished by master artisans. These workshops utilize traditional, labor-intensive methods of silversmithing to produce each piece.

The collections incorporate recycled and responsibly-sourced sterling silver and 18-karat gold, as well as a selection of pearls and hand-carved stones, including moonstone, carnelian, jade, lapis, onyx, and quartz. Metals are sourced from refiners certified by the Responsible Jewelry Council, and spare metals and materials are reused or recycled whenever possible. In addition, the production and design processes are optimized to reduce waste; for this reason, many pieces are made to order.

Both multiples and collectibles are primarily produced locally in Los Angeles, which minimizes environmental impact while supporting the city’s longstanding manufacturing tradition and the neighborhoods and ecosystems that surround it. The design team works closely with expert jewelers and metalsmiths at every stage of the process, from design through ongoing production. Occasionally, a special technique or material may require the expertise or proximity of a workshop or supplier outside of California or abroad.

The studio remains independent, dedicated to slow growth, exacting standards for quality and material, and the well-being of its team and community.