Yupadee Kobkulboonsiri, a jewelry designer and artist, has died of COVID-19.
She was 51.
The New York Times writes that Kobkulboonsiri created “fantastical” jewelry, such as “neck cuffs with silver springs ending in pearls that looked like asteroids” and “necklaces that looped over a shoulder and erupted in diamonds and pearls.”
A Bangkok native who moved to New York and graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology, Kobkulboonsiri was honored in a variety of trade competitions. She eventually taught at the institute.
Her husband, Steven Fishman, has started a campaign on GoFundMe for a memorial project.
Fishman wrote: “Yupadee was a devout Buddhist; during her intubation, we are confident that she was meditating, and have faith that she left this earth to reach Nirvana. It was Yupadee’s wish to have a small cabin, called a kuti, built in her honor at Temple Forest Monastery, a place that was very dear to her heart.”
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Kobkulboonsiri passed away at Broolyn’s Woodhull Medical Center on April 27, the Times reports.
“Yupadee lived her life with kindness, compassion and a playful exuberance,” Fishman wrote. “Like the precious gems in her workshop, she radiated beauty and light.”
