Ornament is the leading magazine celebrating wearable art. Explore jewelry, fashion, beads; contemporary, ancient and ethnographic.
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42 ORNAMENT 38.1.2015 Rebecca Myers F or the past two decades, Rebecca Myers has been steadily producing an impressive line of jewelry that has evolved from the clean, minimalist lines of contemporary design toward more open, sinuous and organic forms, many of them derived from motifs in nature. Her path has been one of constant experimentation with materials and techniques, while always striving to keep the essential elements in balance: symmetry and asymmetry, light and dark, abstraction and representation. In the Baltimore-based artist's own words, "The collection is about contrasts in texture, color and materials." Many recent pieces, such as the Pod Earrings, feature a heavily textured surface of oxidized iron on which different alloys of gold have been overlaid. Tiny diamonds, which she calls "fairy dust," shine from the blackened iron-like stars in a turbulent night sky. "The sparkle of white fairy dust against dark and rough metal is a contrast that is very intriguing to me," she says. "This yin/yang exists perfectly in nature. Getting that perfect/imperfection in my work is my goal for the collection." The earrings, as well as a related seed pod necklace, can be traced directly to a transformative trip that Myers took with her then-fiancé to Costa Rica's Corcovado National Park in 2003. MEXICAN FIRE OPAL NECKLACE of fire opal, diamonds, eighteen karat gold, oxidized silver, 2013. Photograph by Ralph Gabriner. Opposite Page: BARBIE DREAM HOUSE RINGS of mandarin garnet, beryl, aquamarine, oxidized silver, eighteen karat gold, diamonds, carved, cast, 2011. Photograph by Julieta Rivarola. Photograph by Shannon Partrick.