Eddie Sakamoto, a third generation Japanese-American, was
born in 1953 in Seattle, Washington. Sakamoto was trained
in graphic design and had a great interest in architecture
and industrial design. However, after a five year employment
with a prominent jewelry designer, he began to see jewelry
as an alternate means of design expression. Aspiring to present
his ideas to a larger audience, Sakamoto moved to Los Angeles
in 1979 is to create his own jewelry design company, Concept
1 - Sakamoto.
Sakamoto describes himself as a minimalist. The challenge
to create jewelry where less is more. Showing discipline to
avoid ideas that are mostly decorative or ornamental in nature.
As in many Japanese art forms, negative space plays a leading
role in defining his designs. Platinum and 18KT yellow gold
take on strong sensual shapes. They curve and bend and arc
gracefully. They are feminine and masculine in form, the yin/yang.
Leading jewelry designer, author and educator Alan Revere
describes Sakamoto's work, "using precious materials
as a sculpture uses clay, Sakamoto creates hefty rings, bracelets
and pendants displaying a disregard for gold's intrinsic value
which is uncharacteristic of material-conscious jewelry designers.
Sakamoto's striking visual statements are a result of the
dramatic interplay of forms, each of which is carefully massaged
until a harmonious and balanced solution is achieved. His
designs often employ large unusually set diamonds as their
focal point, sometimes including an embellishment of channel-set
smaller diamonds. Sakamoto's flawless artwork would be just
as intriguing if executed as twenty-foot tall garden sculptures
as they are in miniature on the finger of a sophisticated
woman."