The gift of a Sears rock grinder for his eighth grade graduation launched the career of James Cleland. Using rocks and gemstones from his childhood collection, he began experimenting with design and cutting freeform shapes to set into findings and bestow as gifts. Jim graduated from Southern Illinois University in 1970, with a degree in biology. He combined postgraduate work in geology with opening and running the Carbondale Rock Shop, selling jewelry related tools and finished jewelry. In 1975, he relocated and opened the Southern Illinois Gem Company, combining his interest in gems and geology with his burgeoning skills in design as a bench jeweler.

Seeking a wider market and a larger, more vibrant arts community, Jim and his wife, Ginger, relocated to St. Louis. They developed another jewelry business, Designs in Gold, which presently operates retail outlets in St. Louis, MO and Solvang, CA. Their retail success has allowed Jim to focus on the designs and building of art jewelry reflecting his keen sense of the organic form. The fluid movement and symmetry that occurs so seamlessly in nature is recreated with metals and gems in Jim's hand. Truly form follows function in the many insect designs so accurately crafted that one almost waits to see if they will fly or sting!!

Often utilizing the traditional technique of “hollow form, ”Jim has been tagged as “master of the pitch bowl.” His artistry in using gold and silver overlays, piercing, engraving, stone setting, and his ability to create movement with tiny axles and hinges ensures that every James Cleland design is a uniquely crafted work of art.

Jim's latest body of work reinterprets the traditional forms of the Japanese mon in pendants, brooches, bracelets and earrings. Each represents hours of thought, study and bench work culminating in an object de art with soul that reaches out to our clients and collectors. Indeed it is not unusual for a customer to visit a custom piece as it is being built or spend hours in the store touching and gazing at a piece before deciding to bring it home.

As with every project in James' life, the creation of the mon collection is not just a mechanical process. An amateur paleontologist and an astute observer of life in general, James grabs a piece of life learned everyday that impacts the creation of his art. Each mon is like a small piece of our world, incorporating depth, texture, movement, and color.