Dirigible Designs

Dirigible Designs is Blake Smith and Melanie Schlossberg; each began metalworking as teenagers. Melanie studied metalsmithing at Syracuse University in upstate New York and Blake made custom jewelry while running a bronze foundry business in the Texas hill country. They have been crafting Dirigible Designs together, in a truly collaborative design practice, since 2015.

We use traditional techniques to fabricate one-of-a-kind and small batch silver jewelry that uses hand-cut, fortunately found, and wisely collected stones and materials. Our simple architectural designs call attention to the materiality of our work. By doing our own lapidary work, we are able to create shapes that enhance our exploration of asymmetry, scale, and texture. Sustainability is infused in our practice by recycling our silver into sand cast objects bypassing the use of a refiner, and sourcing found objects or cast-off materials.

We use traditional techniques to fabricate one-of-a-kind and small batch silver jewelry that uses hand-cut, fortunately found, and wisely collected natural and artificial materials. Our simple architectural designs call attention to the materiality of our work. By doing our own lapidary work, we are able to create shapes that enhance our exploration of asymmetry, scale, and texture. Sustainability is infused in our practice by recycling our silver into sand cast objects bypassing the use of a refiner, and sourcing found objects or cast-off materials.