Celia Sebiri (1913-2006) was an American jewelry designer active in the 1940s-1980s.

Biography

Sebiri was born 17 March 1913, and studied at

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

. Her husband was a meat broker, and in the 1970s, they lived on Greenwich Square, Washington. She died on 1 April 2006, aged 93, in New York. Her daughter, Karen Sebiri, also became a jewelry designer.

Jewelry design

As a jewelry designer Sebiri was known particularly for her work in silver, which she treated as if it were more valuable than it already was. She also worked with natural materials including ivory and tortoiseshell, although the Endangered Species Act of 1973 led to Bonwit Teller having to take her work off sale after they and she realized that the

hawksbill sea turtle The hawksbill sea turtle (''Eretmochelys imbricata'') is a critically endangered sea turtle belonging to the family Cheloniidae. It is the only extant species in the genus ''Eretmochelys''. The species has a global distribution, that is largel ...

was an endangered species. In 1974 Sebiri described her inspirations as coming from anywhere from passages of literature to dried up leaves. In 1973 Sebiri won one of two Special

Coty Award The Coty American Fashion Critics' Awards (awarded 1943–1984) were created in 1942 by the cosmetics and perfume company Coty, Inc. to promote and celebrate American fashion, and encourage design during the Second World War. In 1985, the Coty Awa ...

s for jewelry (that year's other jewelry Coty recipient was Michael Moraux of Dubaux) for her work, which was described as sinuous and featuring animal motifs. In the 1980s she designed jewelry for Avon.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sebiri, Celia 1913 births 2006 deaths American jewelry designers Hunter College alumni American women jewellers