Sarah McCulloch is the owner and creative talent behind Sarah Boo Designs, a jewelry business based in Oakland, California. Sarah's jewelry reflects her lifelong interest in metal work techniques and her affinity for a Japanese design aesthetic. Her earrings, necklaces, and rings are pierced out of silver.
At 16, Sarah began making jewelry using crude tools she inherited from her grandfather who was an auto mechanic. She has been designing and crafting jewelry ever since. She is a graduate of the Gemological Institute of America with a certificate in Jewelry Manufacturing Arts. She has worked as a bench jeweler for the wholesale manufacturer Van Craeynest in San Francisco, which specializes in die-stamped, Old World jewelry.
Her own designs reflect her fascination with indigenous jewelry-making traditions from Asia, which she studied early on in her career. In the 1990s, she was awarded a grant from the Durfee Foundation to research the silversmithing techniques of several minority cultures in rural Guizhou and Yunnan provinces in Southwest China, where she observed the making of elaborate jewelry for a girl's dowry. She received subsequent foundation funds for a trip to Tibet, where she learned about the myths and legends surrounding the sacred dZi bead, which is of special significance to the Tibetan people.
Sarah went on to live in Tokyo, Japan for six years and studied there at the Kuroki Atelier. Her teachers included Ayako Kuroki, Yoko Kamei and national living treasure Mitsuo Masuda. She learned many uniquely Japanese metalsmithing techniques including an inlay technique invented by Masuda-sensei called chidori-ishime zougan.
Sarah's metal art designs, inspired by Japanese katagami stencils, have been exhibited in museums and stores in the U.S. and Japan. Following several successful trunk shows featuring her personal line of jewelry, she launched her company, Sarah Boo Designs, in 2010.