Special Exhibit
The Art of Transformation:
The Jewelry of Mark Schneider
From November 7, 2026 through April 2027
What comes first, the gemstone or the jewelry? For Mark Schneider, it is usually the gemstone.
Beginning November 7, the Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art in Oak Brook, Illinois, will present The Art of Transformation: The Jewelry of Mark Schneider, bringing together 62 pieces that span the award-winning designer’s career.
Guest curated by Elyse Zorn Karlin, the exhibition explores the ideas and inspirations that have shaped Schneider’s jewelry, from water, flora and fauna to architecture, furniture and the cosmos.
And then there is the whimsical side of Mark Schneider.
Together, the pieces offer a look at a designer whose work can move from beautifully refined gemstone jewelry to bats, pianos and even an ice-cream bar.
When the Gemstone Comes First
Schneider grew up in his family’s retail jewelry business. But in 1981, he decided to take a different path and pursue jewelry design.
And for us, what is particularly interesting about his method is where his designs begin.
Jewelry designers find their inspiration in different ways. Some begin with an idea for a piece, an inspiration they have encountered along the way, and then search for gemstones that will work within that design. Others begin with the gemstone itself, sometimes holding onto a particular stone for years before deciding what it should become.
Mark Schneider, designer
Glenn Lehrer, gemstone carver
Michael Trinh, jeweler
18 kt yellow gold, dendritic agate, diamonds, emeralds
from the Ted and Randa Pearson Collection
Schneider is one of those designers.
He searches for gemstones that interest him, whether for their beauty, unique shape, cutting, rarity or simply their possibilities, and then designs the jewel around them.
As described in the foreword to Mark Schneider Contemporary Jewelry Design:
“Mark’s starting point is the gemstone. He rarely comes up with a design and then finds a gemstone to fit it. Instead, he finds the gemstone and waits for ‘the stone to speak to him’.”
Sometimes that happens immediately. Other times, Schneider may hold onto a gemstone for ten or even twenty years before it finally “speaks.”
Of course, that means finding the right gemstone in the first place.
One example in the exhibition is a 13.55 mm faceted black Tahitian cultured pearl by Kazuhto Komatsu. Schneider saw the unique pearl and created a platinum ring around it, combining it with opal inlay, colorless diamonds and tsavorite garnets.
It Takes More Than a Designer
Schneider’s jewelry also reveals another side of contemporary jewelry design: the collaboration that can take place among the designer, gem artist and jeweler.
And Schneider has worked with an impressive group of gem artists, including Darryl Alexander, Roger Dery, Michael Dyber, Kazuhito Komatsu, Glenn Lehrer, Christian Lorenz, Bernd Munsteiner, Tom Munsteiner, Stephen M. Avery, Thomas Trozzo and Steve Walters.
The Eclipse Bolo is a particularly good example of how those talents can come together. Designed by Schneider, it incorporates a tanzanite by Stephen M. Avery, and citrine and black chalcedony by Steve Walters, with Michael Trinh as the jeweler.
The finished jewel brings those individual talents together in a single composition.
The Refined Side
Schneider’s jewelry reflects many of his interests, and the exhibition groups his work into several broad categories: water, flora and fauna, architecture, furniture-influenced and the cosmos.
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WATER
opal inlay, diamonds and tsavorite garnets
Designer, Mark Schneider
pearl faceted by Kazuhto Komatsu
Michael Trinh, jeweler
from the Mark and Nancy Schneider Collection.
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FLORA AND FAUNA
Mark Schneider, designer
Steve Walters, lapidary artist
Michael Trinh, jeweler
14 kt white gold and 18 kt yellow gold, carved black chalcedony, ruby, yellow, brown and diamonds
from the Mark and Nancy Schneider Collection
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architectURE
Designer, Mark Schneider
Michael Trinh, jeweler
from the Mark and Nancy Schneider Collection.
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furniture-influenced
platinum, trillion tanzanite, white pearl, yellow and white diamonds, black chalcedony, citrine
Mark Schneider, designer
Stephen M. Avery, gemstone designer-tanzanite
Steve Walters, lapidary artist-citrine and black chalcedony
Michael Trinh, jeweler
from the Mark and Nancy Schneider Collection.
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THE COSMOS
Mark Schneider, designer
Tom Munsteiner, master lapidary gemstone cutter and designer of quartz
Michael Trinh, jeweler
from the Mark and Nancy Schneider Collection
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The Playful Side of Mark Schneider
Schneider is a member of the American Jewelry Design Council (AJDC), the invitation-only organization whose members take on an annual Design Project. Each year, a theme is selected, and members are free to interpret it however they wish.
Twenty-two of Schneider’s AJDC Project pieces are included in The Art of Transformation.
And this is where things get fun.
14 kt yellow, rose and white gold
onyx, mother-of-pearl, diamonds, blue sapphires, black rhodium
Designer, Mark Schneider
Michael Trinh, jeweler
from the Mark and Nancy Schneider Collection.
The Piano Cufflinks, for example, feature tiny rose-gold hands positioned over keyboards of onyx and mother-of-pearl. The cufflinks combine 14 kt yellow, rose and white gold with diamonds, blue sapphires and black rhodium. Michael Trinh is credited as the jeweler.
And yes, there is an Ice Cream Bar.
Mark Schneider, designer
rock crystal, sterling silver with brown patina, 18 kt yellow gold
from the Mark and Nancy Schneider Collection
Created from rock crystal, sterling silver with a brown patina and 18 kt yellow gold, the ice-cream bar is just another example of what happens when Schneider is given the freedom to take an idea somewhere unexpected.
68 Awards
Schneider’s work has earned him 68 jewelry industry awards over the course of his career.
But seeing the pieces together offers something that an awards list cannot: an opportunity to follow the development of a designer’s ideas, the gemstones and gem materials that inspired them, and the gem artists and jewelers who helped turn those ideas into finished jewelry.
The Art of Transformation
Perhaps the Lizzadro sums up the exhibition best:
“This exhibition brings together 40 pieces of jewelry by the award-winning jeweler Mark Schneider, offering a glimpse into the artist’s imaginative and distinctive approach to the craft. Featuring one-of-a-kind pieces and an array of exceptional gemstones, the collection is organized around the themes and ideas that have inspired Schneider throughout his career. Together, the pieces showcase the remarkable range, moving effortlessly from the beautifully refined to the whimsical.”
In addition, the exhibition includes 22 pieces Schneider designed for the American Jewelry Design Council’s annual Design Projects.
The Art of Transformation: The Jewelry of Mark Schneider opens Saturday, November 7, 2026, at the Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art in Oak Brook, Illinois.
Schneider will be at the museum at 2 p.m. on opening day to discuss his jewelry and the inspiration behind his designs.
The museum will also screen Sharing the Rough, the feature-length documentary following the journey of gemstones from East African mines through cutting and ultimately into finished jewelry, on Sunday, November 8, and Sunday, December 13, at 1 p.m.
The book Mark Schneider Contemporary Jewelry Design will also be available at the museum.
The Art of Transformation: The Jewelry of Mark Schneider
Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art
Oak Brook, Illinois
November 7, 2026 through April 2027
About the Lizzadro Museum
The Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art is a museum dedicated to the lapidary arts with displays of gemstones, jewelry and bejeweled objects, and exhibits on earth science. The museum was founded in Elmhurst, Illinois, United States, in 1962, and moved to Oak Brook, Illinois, in 2019.
For further information contact Kyle Brill at info@lizzadromuseum.org
