My name is Evan Rosdahl and I started my small jewelry business Top Knot Concepts in Chicago in August of 2014. I have been residing and working in Telluride now for the past 4 years and travel to gem shows and festivals to share my creations. I accepted my fate as a starving artist at an early age. Since high school I have worked in the food service industry to fund my artistic endeavors and keep me fed until I finally registered my business and have been a full time creator for the past two years.

What is your chosen artistic medium?

I specialize in making a variety of jewelry out of fine metals, precious gems, and minerals. Everything from pendants, to rings, bracelets, and more. My main focus is high end silver wire wrap jewelry. At the beginning of the pandemic I had to adapt and began making electroformed jewelry (fancy word for copper plating) which allows me to incorporate natural and ethically found materials like an acorn husks or butterfly wings and turn it into jewelry, as well as chainmail bracelets & chains to cope with the world being on a tighter budget.

Who + What are your muses?

First and foremost my Muse is my amazing partner Krissy who has a collection of pieces dedicated to her inspiration.

Much of my design inspiration comes from my fascination with the small details of the natural world and my obsession with the complexity of sacred geometry. Also tying my ancestral roots I incorporate Norse & Celtic knot work, imagery, & lore into the majority of my work. I absolutely have to give a nod to the infamous work of Carl Faberge because I draw a lot of inspiration from his approach to crafting masterpieces.

What are your prep or practice rituals to get you into the artistic headspace?

I love the design process of jewelry so I spend a lot of time sketching designs and putting together aesthetic stone combinations, which has drastically improved the paper to final product process of my creations. However I tend to find my artistic motivation comes from being in the process rather than getting myself into the headspace before beginning.

What is your favorite awkward growth moment or barrier breaking time?

I think my favorite awkward growth moment was the first time I attended the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show. I had been making jewelry for a little more than two years and heard about a music festival called Gem & Jam in Tucson, AZ that had a big focus on gems and jewelry. Growing up with metal heads for parents I was more interested in the theme than the music, but knew it would symbolize my commitment to the craft. So I headed off to the desert, alone, with a pocket full of money, to spend all of it on rocks. After meeting a few of the fellow jewelers I looked up to and buying a bunch of stones on the festival grounds, I discovered the real treasure of this adventure which I was previously unaware of. The entire city of Tucson gets taken over for a month with gem, jewelry, fossil, & art dealers from every corner of the world! Fast forward five and a half years later, my mind is a gemstone dictionary and I’ve never been more obsessed with every facet of the gem & jewelry world.

What inspires you and/or keeps you engaged and moving forward?

I pull inspiration from everything around me and all that I do, but what keeps me engaged and moving forward is the drive to bring people a truly artisan heirloom that has a story. My ultimate goal is to be able to ethically mine my own gems, cut them to my desired shapes & sizes, and set them into a unique piece of jewelry that you can trace every piece of material back to the source, either direct from me or other artisanal miners & artists around the world. Being able to share that knowledge and experience with others is what drives me!

What is your favorite quote or saying?

“It’s not normal to be normal.”

My Visual Perspective Professor (don’t remember his name)

Tell us about your upcoming events, new releases, or anticipated projects:

I am going to be kicking it into overdrive this year as I intend on doing a lot of extensive mining and rockhounding, creating a lot of my crowd favorite wire wrap designs, and will be making the transition from wire wraps to fabricated jewelry. As well as extending my home studio so I can start doing Lapidary work (stone cutting) as well!