Sheinfeld Rodriguez Creates Intricate Jewelry with 3D Technology

The rings, earrings, bracelets and necklaces from this Big Island duo look otherworldly.

Editor’s Note: Through our partnership with the Hawai‘i State Art Museum, HONOLULU Magazine publishes a monthly blog written by Lisa Shiroma, owner of the HiSAM Museum Gallery Shop.

Images: Courtesy of Daniel Sheinfeld Rodriguez

Daniel Sheinfeld Rodriguez is a constant creator. As an architect, sculptor and conceptual artist, he is always in the process of creating something new. 

After immigrating to the U.S. from Caracas, Venezuela, in 2003, he moved to Hāwī on the Big Island, where he finds inspiration as well as raw materials to create large-scale, site-specific sculptures. But now he’s going small with intricate jewelry he creates with his wife, Loomis, as the duo Sheinfeld Rodriguez.

Wild orchid roots, liliko‘i vines and banyan roots inspire the entwined rings, earrings, bracelets and necklaces from the Roots collection. The Ore collection reflects the volcanic environment of the Big Island: a rocky, crystalized terrain that translates into edgy jewelry that could probably double as self-defense tools for the wearer.

To create the jewelry, the couple goes through an intensive process. They begin by designing each piece using various digital applications. Once the virtual model of the design is complete, they 3D-print a highly detailed prototype, make a mold from it and then cast the metal pieces using the lost-wax method.

Daniel welcomes the imperfections that result from the process, which he says give all of their designs a handmade quality and individual character. Each of their creations is treated like a small-scale sculpture.

As an artist, Daniel prefers to use mundane and ordinary construction materials and morphs them into beautiful, striking objects. Some of his current work incorporates 4-by-4 construction beams, transformed into carved, burned temple columns; and concrete cast from recycled vacuum-formed plastic and chipped cement blocks. These sculptures will be part of a new art exhibition, Aug. 2 to Sept. 28, at the gallery shop along with work from fellow contemporary artist Jacqueline Rush Lee. Both artists have a gift for changing ordinary, everyday materials into the extraordinary.

Sheinfield Rodriguez jewelry is available at the HiSAM Gallery Shop x Mori by Art + Flea, $153–$349. Learn more about Daniel’s work at a free Pau Hana Artist Talk on Aug. 28, 6 to 8 p.m. at the museum.

L
isa Shiroma is the owner of the HiSAM Museum Gallery Shop and runs it with partners Aly Ishikuni-Sasaki and Travis Sasaki from Mori by Art + Flea.

Lisa worked as gallery manager for Koa Art Gallery at KCC from 2014 to 2017.

In July 2017, Lisa, Travis and Aly renovated and reopened the Hawai‘i State Art Museum’s gift shop space as a new art gallery and gift shop “for Hawai‘i artists, by Hawai‘i artists.”