WIVES, MOTHERS, DAUGHTERS, SISTERS, and grandmothers, as well as husbands in need of bailout, are her customers, but they are far more than customers, really. Call it “Cynthia mania.”
Her pieces are at once exotic and romantic, familiar and mysteriously malleable. That follows, as each was designed with one woman in mind. In fact, she actually takes responsibility for how women who buy jewelry look…has been known to walk across a room to straighten a necklace so it falls the just right way. Hipsters and others trust her judgment on this matter as if she were the high priestess of the Holy Grail.
What sort of rigor does it take to be a jewelry designer?
I began with painting…was at SUNY Purchase with a painting major. During one critique, a professor said, “You have the desire, but don’t have the passion.” That really hit me. I was like, “I need to find another art where I have so much desire that I have to do it.” I took a jewelry class after that, was struck by its three-dimensionality, and learned quickly that that was my purpose.
I recall making an early pair of earrings. They brought me back to my grandmother, because she was so glamorous…never walked out the door without red lipstick or jewels. I loved that. She had hand-me-down costume jewelry, which was wonderful. So, I took that jewelry class, then another, really excelled, and changed my major to metalsmithing.
And what about the skill?
I start with a drawing…sketch what I want to create and then begin thinking, “What metal can I use to make this?” (I also did some sculpting in college,
which helps.) Then it is a sequence of properly heating, and melting, and form. It’s a skill, but it’s also artistic.
I primarily use sterling silver, and a little gold. I work with precious metals—no base metals like nickel silver, brass, copper, or tin. What appeals about sterling and gold is that they are so malleable; you can make them into anything. There’s also a heritage and a native tradition of sterling silver jewelry in Santa Fe, of course. It’s not outrageously priced, yet you’re wearing precious metal. There’s something special about that.
It seems your jewelry really all about the wearer rather than the piece itself, a partnership of sorts.
I hope so. Jewelry is not like clothing. It’s an accessory that makes you feel strong, beautiful, accents whatever else you’re wearing as part of an echelon of presentation. I love making jewelry that makes women feel…not better about themselves, exactly, but strong and adorned. And then there’s the sentimental part. I make a necklace that I know someone can wear every day as a keepsake. That’s another part that’s important to me…that these pieces be meaningful.
I also want women to be able to afford the work. I want a 20-, 30-, 40-year-old to be able to buy it and feel like she’s wearing something handmade and enduring. Now, happily, I see people wearing my pieces all the time. If I see someone at Whole Foods, for example, I might ask if I can take a photo for Instagram. People seem to love that.
Your Dreamscape earrings seem modern, yet tap into something older, even ancient.
For those, I knew I wanted to have something like fringe, with that associated movement. They’re hoops, with several almost oar-like pieces of sterling dropping down. They are made from irregular hammered sterling silver, which adds a great tactile quality; I want people to be able to see the by-hand process. A phrase I use to describe them is “bohemian chic.”
Interestingly, there are actually not too many shapes when it comes to jewelry. Squares…circles, but what resonates for me is simple elegance, and the femininity of certain shapes. The teardrop is also a signature shape for me; its curvature is feminine, and almost infinitely wearable.
The dynamism is certainly helped by that diversity of shapes, and by tapping into, in a pretty strategic way, what the eye follows. Those have been a great seller.
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Photo Andy Johnson
