This Hawai‘i Designer Creates Sculpted Jewelry Pieces From Sterling Silver

Omnia Jewelry designer Andromeda Hendricks infuses a quiet power into her beautifully hand-sculpted pieces.

1. alinea bracelet, $380. 2. alinea pendant necklace, $120, chain not shown. 3. Alinea cuff, $220. 4. Alinea pendant necklace, $140, chain not shown. 5. Alinea ring, $120. 

Photos: Odeelo Dayondon 

Water ripples. Radiating tree rings. Molten lava streams that cool to billowy swirls of rock. If you’ve ever reveled at nature’s intrinsic ebb and flow, then the new Alinea Collection from locally crafted Omnia Jewelry is right up your alley.

Designer Andromeda Hendricks’ expressive pieces emanate a constant sense of movement, an impressive feat considering her material of choice is solid sterling silver. Her painstakingly handcrafted bracelets, rings and pendants make for jaw-dropping statement pieces that simultaneously showcase the metal’s fluid and fixed states. Most are exquisitely one of a kind, save for a few select duplicated styles duplicated to meet growing demand.

Born and raised in Guam, Hendricks originally moved to Hawai‘i 18 years ago to attend college. The Islands, as they often do, worked their magic and brought together Hendricks and her husband, a high-school friend who had joined the Navy and was stationed on O‘ahu. 

Being a designer wasn’t originally part of the plan. “I had taken some painting and small-scale sculpture classes, but my background isn’t actually in art,” she says. “I have a degree in psychology.” Her interest in jewelry making sparked at Linekona, a nonprofit vocational school where students learn how to make and communicate through art. “I found it incredibly fulfilling,” says Hendricks. She was further spurred on by the field’s flexible hours. “As a mother of three, I was trying to find something that I could do from home,” she says.

It was Hendricks’ husband who came up with the name Alinea. “It means the beginning of a new paragraph,” she says. Design-wise, it was symbolic of a fresh direction. Like many budding jewelry artists, Hendricks started out with wire wrapping. Recently, she decided to shift her focus, discovering a new style through experimentation. “I love abstract and modern art, and being able to create something three dimensionally,” says Hendricks. 

Enter lost wax casting, the meticulous, multistage, multiday process that requires the artisan to hand carve the design out of wax and then kiln burn it to create a mold for casting. Hendricks put her own unique spin on the process, foregoing sketches for an organic, free-form shaping of the metal. The results are visually and texturally stunning. “I take the idea of the Zen painting, the brushstroke, and how the paints bleeds any way it wants,” she says. “It evolves into what it wants to become.” 

Omnia Jewelry’s Alinea collection is available at omniajewelry.com, Fighting Eel Waikīkī, Royal Hawaiian Center, 808-738-9295, and Fighting Eel Kāhala, Kāhala Mall, 808-738-4912.