Although his jewelry designs are innovative and often contemporary in style, G. Scott Tabar is a traditionalist when it comes to the craft of creating jewelry.

Tabar has been designing and producing his stunning jewelry for 30 years, and has had a working studio in the village of Guilford since 1998. The veteran metalsmith holds both bachelor's and master's degrees.

Working directly with the materials of his craft is important to Tabar, not just because he likes working with his hands, but because he finds that "by working directly to manipulate precious metals, there is a dialogue between the artist and his material. It's both visual and tactile. It's what makes the difference between handmade and machine made. Computer-generated designs do what an operator tell it to do. There is no dialogue.

"What I do is pretty unique," he says of his original designs.

"Most of my images just sort of come to me. I see things in nature or just see forms. I usually work in series. There might be a texture or a shape that I like and I'll do many pieces based on that shape or texture. I like to experiment."

In addition to his one-of-a-kind pieces, Tabar does quite a bit of commissioned work. He enjoys the challenge of making someone else's idea come to life.

Tabar has created pieces ranging from sterling silver cocktail picks to cufflinks mounted with fossilized dinosaur bones. One commission in particular that he enjoyed was for a couple that each separately designed the other's engagement ring.

"She wanted to do something creative for her groom," Tabar says. "He's a fisherman, so I came up with three fish that are intertwined and it came out really well. He was really pleased. No one else had anything like it.

"She liked floral things and so her ring had floral shapes to it, and I designed a little band to go with it out of 18-karat gold with a platinum setting in the middle, and a diamond that belonged to his mother."

Another memorable commissioned piece Tabar did was to commemorate the birth of a baby.

"The baby's name was Jasper and she wanted a Jasper stone — and they vary a lot. I found a nice Picture Jasper, which looks like a desert landscape," Tabar explains. (Picture Jasper is a variety of stone in which the patterns bear an uncanny resemblance to landscapes, horizons and other natural scenery.) "She wanted a simple setting she could wear every day, so it was just basically a frame for the stone. But I wanted to do something a little different, so on the back I did a pierced design and it was (of the spiral shape of the unfurling frond) of a New Zealand silver fern, called the koru, which is for harmony with nature and birth. I thought that was a nice thing to give someone who just had a baby. It made it very personal."

Tabar says he does a lot of pieces with other people's stones that are family heirlooms that get passed down; for couples who've been married for awhile and just want something new; and for people who inherit a piece of jewelry that's not their style that he'll transform into something completely different. He's even made several totally recycled pieces of jewelry, melting down the gold, and creating original designs.

Gems and stones Tabar likes to work with include Boulder opals because they're very organic — "they're darker than other opals and look like little paintings or enamels," he says. He also likes working with pearls.

"I recently came into a whole bunch of natural Tahitian black pearls and did a lot of pieces with those," he says.  "And I like working with precious stones like sapphires and diamonds.

Tabar enjoys working with gold because it's so malleable, but he also uses a lot of silver, and platinum.

"I like taking a piece of metal and working with it. It's fun to watch the metal take shape," he says. "I like my hammers, my torches — all my toys."

About the artist: To see more of Scott Tabar's jewelry, visit www.tabardesigns.com. You can reach him by phone at 203-453-8868 or email gstabar@mac.com