Market Visit: Daphna Simon

Daphna Simon, New York; (646) 724-5092; www.daphnasimon.com.

Starting retail price point: $300

Signature Style: 18k gold animal-inspired pieces, particularly wild animals

Dapha designs comfortable and substantial wild-animal-inspired jewelry. She and her husband and business partner, Asaf Katzir, recently moved to New York from Haifa, Israel, where she studied fashion design and goldsmithing. Daphna fabricates and casts all the jewelry herself in New York. Pieces are little sculpted works of art, with matte finishes, and very few gemstones—the jewelry is all about the gold and creating soothing interpretations of animals. In fact, her creations are so calming that most people who handle the jewelry “end up petting the pieces,” she says of her wolf, bear, and big-cat motifs. Dapha aims to add a silver line soon.