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47 ORNAMENT 38.1.2015 Her studio, a high-ceilinged space with exposed beams and ducts, is subdivided into three sections. In the front is a gallery with glass cases displaying perhaps a hundred examples of Myers's works across a range of styles. Behind the gallery, separated by a six-foot-high divider wall, is a fabrication room with three benches at which Myers and her two assistants assemble pieces, as well as a computer station and a laser welder. The third compartment houses the raw materials for casting (seeds, rocks, shells, branches, a nest with a robin's egg still in it) and equipment for wax-injection molding, sand-blasting, and electroplating. Each space has windows that look out over the narrow walkway to an embankment covered with dense foliage. Except for some pavé setting, which she sends out, everything is done here in the studio. "It's not for puritanical reasons," says Myers. "It's because I really like to experiment. We change our work all the time. And the only reason that happens as quickly and efficiently as it does is because we do our own casting. So if we want to try something new, we try it." When not in the studio, Myers is generally on the road, keeping up a busy show schedule that, in a given year, might include Art Palm Beach, SOFA in Chicago, the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, and American Craft Council shows in Baltimore, San Francisco, and other cities, as well as numerous trunk shows and other smaller events. When asked about her influences, Myers cites a few familiar names in the jewelry world who have impacted her work at different times, including Michael Zobel and Steven Kretchmer, along with some lesser-known figures, such as metalsmith and fellow Tyler graduate Robert Farrell. But as her personal role model she cites Peggy Guggenheim, whose collection of modern art she first came across on a trip to Venice in 2000, and whose autobiography Out of This Century she rereads every few years. "I love her story," says Myers. "She just was really self-possessed and did her own thing. She did not conform in the least." Words to live by, as this artist clearly does. *Editorial comment: The seed pod is invested in plaster; when it is burned into ashes in the kiln, the resulting mold is filled with wax. These are used to cast metal replicas of the pod. SUGGESTED READING Arginteanu, Judy. "Action and Traction." American Craft Magazine 74, No. 1 (February/March 2014), http://craftcouncil.org/magazine/article/action-and- traction. Blauer, Ettagale. "Making Magic out of Metal." New York Diamonds, May 2009. Booth, Janice F. "Rebecca Myers: Jewelry Is Her Art." Inside Annapolis, June 2005. Meerdter, Gail. "In the Studio: An Interview with Jewelry Designer Rebecca Myers." BmoreArt, February 18, 2014, http://bmoreart.com/2014/02/in-the-studio-an- interview-with-jewelry-designer-rebecca-myers-by-gail-meerdter.html. Savidge, Mariella. "Jewelry Designer Carves Her Niche." Allentown Morning Call, October 20, 1997. Whipple, Paige. "Covet: Arm Candy by Rebecca Myers." Baltimore Style, November 2014, http://www.baltimorestyle.com/index.php/style/article/12528. CACTUS LEAF BROWN DIAMOND PAVE RING of eighteen karat gold, pavé champagne diamonds, oxidized silver, carved, cast, 2014. Photograph by Shannon Partrick. BEE NECKLACE of oxidized silver, eighteen karat gold, diamonds, cast, inlaid, 2010. Photograph by Julieta Rivarola.