"A well designed piece of jewelry should invite closer inspection," Wysor explains, picking up his signature bracelet. "That illustrates what happens to me when I see something I think is well-designed – I do a double take." His studio is littered with the things that have made him do double takes. Tacked on one bulletin board is a close-up photo of the wheel on a steel rolling cart; a magazine layout of wingtip golf shoes with contrast stitching; and a photo, torn from a newspaper, of a blocky low-rise in Jericho. Amidst the studio’s jewelers’ benches, polishing machines and pieces of jewelry in all stages of production, hang original art and even a 3-D diagram of the human brain that looks like it once adorned an elementary school classroom. All of this, however subtly, plays some role in the design of Wysor’s bracelets, earrings and necklaces.

Wysor also derives creative inspiration from his adopted hometown. "Walking around a place like Philadelphia that is so visually stimulating makes your mind active." The art deco detailing from one 1930s skyscraper a few blocks from his studio inspired one of his collection’s gold accents.

Wysor came to jewelry largely by chance. Living in New Orleans, he met a jeweler with a studio in the French Quarter, who was having trouble meeting the demand for his handforged sterling silver jewelry. Wysor offered to help. "As soon as I sat down at the jewelers bench," he says, "I knew this was what I was going to do." He drank in everything he could about jewelry-making. He read books. He attended workshops. He walked into shops to inspect other designers’ pieces, to turn them over in his hands to see how they were finished.

Some pieces in his collection, like his signature bracelet, are about balance; some are about texture; and some are about pattern. One thing they all have in common is their versatility. "There are shapes and forms that speak to us universally, and putting them together is where designers come in - realizing the response those shapes, patterns, lines and textures elicit, then putting them together in a way that makes people want to use them."