Ornament is the leading magazine celebrating wearable art. Explore jewelry, fashion, beads; contemporary, ancient and ethnographic.
Issue link: http://ornamentmagazine.epubxp.com/i/476566
45 ORNAMENT 38.1.2015 something in every medium, and I had to fulfill a craft requirement," she says. "I picked jewelry—it was kind of the path of least resistance." Myers quickly discovered that, unlike many fellow students, she had an aptitude for the medium. "People were burning their hair, and setting their clothes on fire, and melting things, and I was making stuff! So I thought, alright, I'll continue making stuff," she says. By the time she graduated in 1991, she had already sold her first line of work to a gallery. Myers was accepted into the graduate program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, but she decided that she did not want to teach—she wanted to launch her own business. She moved to Milwaukee, where her boyfriend had a teaching position, and went to work for the Parkinson Company, a local commercial jeweler. "We did all the custom work for jewelers in the city, so I carved every wax that went through that place for about five years," she says. "I got a lot of schooling on how business works. I got a lot of stone contacts. The diamond source I got from that position, I still use. There was a lot of hands-on experience that really was helpful. It was kind of graduate school for business." Myers remained at Parkinson for five years, even as she worked tirelessly to launch her own line of jewelry. "I worked all day and then I came home and I would take a nap, and I would work for as long as I could," she recalls. "I would apply to shows, and if I got in I would try to do them." One key to Myers's success is that her passion in pursuing her dreams is wedded to a practical, pragmatic side that has helped her to make the most of opportunities. Her first major venue was the American Craft Council show in Atlanta in 1993. From then on, she aimed to do four shows per year. She also set herself a goal for independence: "In order to quit my job, I wanted to have three months of orders and a schedule filled with shows." A breakthrough came in 1996, when Myers was named Best New Talent by the Jewelry Design Council. At the urging of a friend, she had applied at the very last minute. "I remember putting those pieces in the box. I went out to the all-night post office in Milwaukee and got it postmarked, literally, five minutes before midnight!" she recalls. "It was a surprise when I got a letter from Michael Bondanza, who was head of the Design Council at that point." The award helped Myers turn the corner. "It seemed like the floodgates opened after that," she says. "I got introduced to Cindy Edelstein, Alex Sepkus, and that whole world, which is very different from the commercial, boutique world. Everybody was very encouraging. It made me feel like I could take the leap." Even so, she waited another six months, quitting her job RUBY CUFF of oxidized silver, eighteen karat gold, twenty-two karat gold, diamonds, ruby, 2014. Photograph by Ralph Gabriner.