Andre Benjamin of the popular hip hop group Outkast and Grammy Award winner in 2003 for his album “SpeakerBoxx”/The Love Below, called me after seeing my unique jewelry designs in an Atlanta jewelry gallery. He mentioned several of his favorite animals including gorillas, mandrills, unicorns, and several  others. After presenting thumbnails paintings, Andre chose the  Custom Jewelry Hip Hop, The “Mandrill”.

My creation of this enameled jewel pendant was spotted in XXL magazine and in the video for the song “Hey Ya” before it was stolen from Andre’s luggage while touring in Europe. You would notice it quickly as the enameled jewel is 4″ in length and 2.5″ wide. This custom enameled jewel is set in 18k white gold. A very striking and unique gold jewelry!

Andre Benjamin like many artist wanted a custom hip hop jewelry pendant like no one else. A one of a kind jewel that he would not see on anyone anywhere. His own design. When you receive a client like this you are inspired to create jewels to fit their imagination. After he reviewed the renderings Andre asked to have the cloisonné wires vary in thickness. Not the traditional size of cloisonné. And this indeed created a unique effect to the enameled jewel pendant.