Raïssa Bump studied jewelry at Rhode Island School of Design and Alchimia School of Contemporary Jewelry under Giampaolo Babetto. She has been exhibiting her jewelry since 2003 and is skilled at making both intricate one-of-a-kind pieces and beautiful edition collections–all of which speak to her interest in wearable arts, textiles, and slow & methodical handwork. Raïssa is a keen observer of her environment, curious, and enjoys adventure – her jewelry is a reflection of this. She collages together her observations into pieces that are bold from a distance yet draw you in, asking you to look closer and notice subtle details or how light coruscates across surfaces. Her work can be seen in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and the Smithsonian Museum of American Art's Renwick Gallery.

"Likenesses depend on the transformations an artist sets in motion: consider the way in so many of these pieces, hardness is worked into flexibility, opacity is made to reveal a hidden clarity, how a cut-out, petal-like design suggests an abundant offering of flowers, and then, step back a bit – even the spaces between the blooms themselves form airy bouquets. The emotional qualities of materials, too, might be expressed by way of metaphor: in Raïssa Bump’s hand, a brooch can be complex, nuanced, full of lively contradictions like the best conversationalists — both open and self-contained, inviting and sharp. Spend time engaging (brooch or person) and it’s clear: what’s just below the surface unexpectedly asserts. What’s on top, unveils itself slowly. The urbane has its rough spots; that which is raw, its elegance." – EXCERPTED FROM "ON THE POETRY OF LIKENESS: RAISSA BUMP by Lia Purpura, 2014.