As Smith’s health declined in later years, he found solace in traveling and teaching—a return to his early days working as an art teacher for the Children’s Aid Society Junior Achievement program based in Harlem—and passed away in 1982, just a few years after closing his Greenwich Village studio. His pieces were never reproduced; his jewelry and his life were so deeply intertwined that he was, in effect, his own signature.

Over the course of his career, Smith produced a volume of work large enough that it still circulates today among private collectors, museums, and the children and families of the original buyers. (Two major collections were recently acquired by the National Museum of African American History and Culture.) His innate understanding of the human body’s motion, vulnerability, and potential influenced a generation of Black artists—and continues to enrapture those lucky enough to wear his pieces.