Key takeaways
• The Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art will host an exhibition of award-winning jeweler Mark Schneider’s work from November 7, 2026, to March 28, 2027.
• The exhibition features 40 unique pieces of jewelry, including 22 designed for the American Jewelry Design Council Projects.
• Mark Schneider, recipient of 68 prestigious industry awards, will give a public talk at the museum on opening day at 2 PM.
(OAK BROOK, IL) – An exhibition of award-winning jeweler Mark Schneider’s one-of-a-kind pieces will open on view at the Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art from November 7, 2026-March 28, 2027. Elyse Zorn Karlin is guest curating the exhibition.
Jewelry designer Mark Schneider has won an impressive 68 prestigious jewelry industry awards, likely setting a record for an individual designer.
Mark ‘grew up’ in his family’s retail jewelry business. In 1981, he had an epiphany—he decided he should pivot into designing his own jewelry. What is special about Mark’s designs is how he begins them. Through his extensive network of gem dealers and gem carvers, he searches for stones that will evolve into his magnificent jewels.
As explained in the foreword to the book featuring his jewelry: “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 this process is immediate; other times he will have a stone in his collection for ten or twenty years before the stone ‘speaks.’
Mark’s jewelry mostly falls into several categories: water, flora and fauna, architectonic, furniture-influenced, and the cosmos, and the exhibition shows them this way. In addition to the award-winning pieces, the exhibition includes 22 additional pieces he designed for the American Jewelry Design Council Projects, the prestigious invitation-only group of which he is a member.
The exhibition will feature 40 pieces of Mark’s jewelry. The book Mark Schneider: Contemporary Jewelry Design will be available for sale at the museum. Mark will give a public talk at 2 PM on Saturday, November 7, 2026.
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
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