Architect of Understatement Shuns Adornments : Stuart Moore Has Fingers Meant for <i> Making </i> Jewelry

If a ring designer shuns jewelry, is it akin to a shoe designer going barefoot?

The mind reels with possible explanations as to why designer Stuart Moore doesn’t wear jewelry.

The reason is simply a matter of old-fashioned vanity.

As a creator of handsome, understated rings, this artist knows beauty best. And he says his short and husky fingers affect the aesthetic.

“See,” he confided recently at his Newport Beach store, placing a fanned out hand on the black, polished table, “these aren’t ring fingers.”

They are, however, the fingers that have crafted a distinguished reputation for simple, elegant bands and have built two successful stores, in Fashion Island Newport Beach and New York City’s SoHo district.

While searching for something comfortable for his “chubby, little fingers,” Moore, 50, made an ergonomic ring in the ‘70s--the squarish, ellipse ring that has become his trademark.

This British expatriate discovered his affinity for jewelry design 33 years ago when living in Australia. He realized jewelry design offered a more creative outlet than his work as a tool and die engineer.

“When I design, I don’t think of wax,” said Moore, referring to conventional casting methods. “I think in terms of sheets of metal, of handworking a piece of metal. That’s why my rings come out so architectural.”

Wedding and engagement rings are Moore’s specialty; he makes few men’s rings. Pieces, especially if they are elliptical, take from 10 to 21 days to make and generally cost from $300 to $5,000. House jeweler Heinz Deckman, an 18-year employee of Moore’s, oversees production.

Moore says he uses matte gold because it’s understated; platinum has increasingly become a favorite because it “represents the more frugal approach of the younger generation. Not in terms of price, but appearance. It represents a change from the opulent ‘80s.”

Moore co-owned a Canadian jewelry company through the mid-’60s and ‘70s, opened Wyndham Leigh (later renamed Stuart Moore) in Newport Beach in 1977 and invented a Lilliputian fiber optic spotlight for his display boxes that would become the standard in jewelry stores, galleries and museums in the ‘80s.

He was going to retire in Europe to sculpt but instead moved to New York City in 1986, opening the SoHo Stuart Moore Gallery to showcase designs by his European friends.

He recently established his workshop and home in South Laguna after living in SoHo for the past decade.

While his rings account for 30% of his business, Moore tends to get more excited talking about his “younger designers”; in most cases, their work is shown exclusively in his stores. Many are from Germany and Switzerland, and all have a strength for unobtrusive elegance and well-defined simplicity that coincides with Moore’s work.

“Elegant simplicity is much more attractive than overdoing it,” he said.