Tufts junior Kristen Dorsey does more than make jewelry. Her designs are artwork, made to last generations, and she pays attention to their smallest, most intricate details.
This isn't just a hobby, either. Dorsey is a professional; she does private commissions and designs for her own line, Neria Designs, which four stores currently carry.
A slow but productive start
Dorsey had a slow introduction to the world of professional jewelry design. She would wear her pieces around Boston, and people would stop her in the street and ask her where she had bought her jewelry. Then, unexpectedly, she won a commission while studying with friends.
"One day when I was wearing a piece of mine at a café with friends, just doing work, I was ordering a coffee, and the girl taking [my] order said, 'I love your necklace,'" Dorsey said. "My friends told her that I made it, and the waitress asked if I could make her something. That was my first commission."
Several small commissions followed Dorsey's first order, and she soon decided to take her designs to the next level. Dorsey combined forces with another student and formed Neria Designs. Together, they took their line to various trunk shows around Boston and Los Angeles where they were able to meet customers and introduce their work to store owners.
"We just kept knocking on doors around Boston. Finally we got our line into a couple of stores," Dorsey said.
Gaining exposure
Pieces from Neria Designs are now sold in four locations. Modern Designs and Furnishings (MDF) in Harvard Square and The Artful Hand in Copley offer Dorsey's work.
In California, Fred Segal in Santa Monica and Kami's in Manhattan Beach carry the line. Dorsey has a Web site for her work as well: www.neriadesigns.com. Her jewelry costs between $150 and $2000. Most of her pieces are inexpensive compared to other designer jewelry.
Though Dorsey originally ran her line with a fellow student, her partner graduated after last fall, leaving Neria Designs completely under Dorsey's control.
"It's challenging on your own because you can't get as much done, but there are benefits to it as well," Dorsey said.
Dorsey is in the process of drawing up a business plan that will make it easier for her to continue designing after she graduates. In the future, she hopes to expand to locations in New York City as well as additional places in Los Angeles. She also wants to find professional representation for her line so that she can focus exclusively on metal-smithing.
"I want to continue creating one-of-a-kind pieces," Dorsey said, "I graduate in a year in a half, and what I want to do is run my business. Eventually I want to hire employees and have a full-on company and full-on brand while still having my work be handcrafted and keeping it very special."
Dorsey says that her biggest challenge at the moment is time management. As a student enrolled in the five-year dual-degree program at Tufts and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, she is majoring in both American Studies and Fine Arts with a focus on metalworking.
"I'm keeping it low-key until I graduate," Dorsey said.
Beginnings
"I've been an artist all my life," Dorsey said. Although she did a lot of fashion design, painting, drawing and other two-dimensional work in high school, it wasn't until she came to Tufts that she was introduced to metalworking.
"I took a Museum of Fine Arts Intro to Jewelry class and got hooked," Dorsey said. Metalsmithing allows Dorsey to work with raw metals and torches to create everything from delicate jewelry to larger sculpture pieces.
Dorsey incorporates a wide variety of materials into her work. While precious metals and gems, the standbys of jewelry, are featured prominently in her pieces, she also makes use of rocks, leather and even plexiglas. In addition to her uncommon mixtures of material, Dorsey has been experimenting with steel and has been treating it like a precious metal.
"I'm starting to expand into incorporating steel into my jewelry," Dorsey said. "When you heat it up to a certain temperature, steel turns the color of a pearl ... you get all these purples and greens."
Early inspirations
Dorsey's designs are often inspired by events in her own life. Growing up on the coast of California, she was constantly exposed to the beach, and her father is a marine biologist who taught her a lot about the ocean's ecology. A love for surfing further allowed her to observe the marine ecosystem.
"While I was surfing, I would see all of the interesting forms of nature that you don't see at first glance," Dorsey said, "Also, my father would take me around to tidal pools and show me all the small animals trapped there and all the interesting textures of the rocks."
Dorsey also finds inspiration in her travels to foreign countries. Five years ago, a trip to India helped first sparked her interest in jewelry. According to Dorsey, India's "incredible jewelry tradition" impressed her when she visited.
More recently, she studied abroad in Australia, traveling up and down the continent's east coast. Dorsey also visited New Zealand, and she found the rock formations, plants and animals around the South Island particularly interesting.
"My jewelry is very organic," Dorsey said. "It's inspired by interesting textures that I find in nature and my travels."
The influence of the ocean is apparent in all of Dorsey's work. In fact, the name of her line, Neria, is directly related to the sea. In Greek mythology, nereids were sea nymphs, creatures similar to mermaids. These figures have played an important part in Dorsey's design conception.
"The whole idea is creating this visual vocabulary around this sea creature and what she would want to wear," Dorsey said.
Dorsey's work is undeniably organic; the shapes and textures of her work recall the patterns of coral and the motion of waves. Sometimes her pieces are explicitly ocean-related. Silver shells, a silver octopus and pearls all make appearances. But the majority of Dorsey's work is more subtle, relying on its colors and sensuous simplicity.
An American education
American Studies Lecturer Joan Lester has long served as a mentor to Dorsey.
"She has taken all of my classes," Lester said, "and I [advised] her year of independent study."
Lester emphasized the impact of Dorsey's strong interest in American studies on her jewelry designs. Her commitment to academic excellence earned Dorsey the Shapiro Award, a grant given annually "to allow American studies students to pursue summer travel plans that incorporate opportunities for personal and academic growth."
According to Lester, the award enabled Dorsey to experiment with more expensive materials, such as heavy metals and freshwater pearls, which are key components of Mississippian Native American jewelry design.
"She begins in one place and then it evolves to the next," Lester said. "Her interest in American studies led her to reconnect with her own heritage, which in turn led her to write about [topics such as] the Trail of Tears and moving on to her interest in jewelry." Though she views Dorsey as an exceptional student, Lester emphasized that this type of personal and intellectual growth is a typical success story of the American studies department.
"American studies is really a place where people can find their own place in the world and gain an understanding of their own identities."
Artist's handprint
Perhaps the most obvious aspect that separates Dorsey's line from other designer jewelry is the attention to detail and quality. Each piece of jewelry is made to be an heirloom, something that Dorsey had in mind when she started her line.
"I think, especially now that people are more aware of the way our culture is, where everything is consumed and thrown out, it's nice to have something lasting and permanent that never goes out of style and you can pass down to your children," Dorsey said.
Dorsey says her customers also appreciate the amount of time and detail she puts into each piece of jewelry.
"I think, people like that, you have to spend time with each piece and really notice tiny little things like a pearl on the back of pendant or an engraving on the inside of a ring. Things like that make it special to wear," Dorsey said. "That's what makes this jewelry important: it tends to be the handprint of the artist. Today everything is mass-produced, and you can buy something that is fashionable and cheap, but you don't have a connection to the artist that made it."
Art or not, Dorsey's baubles are meant to be used, not left sitting behind glass in a gallery.
"I design my jewelry to be worn," Dorsey said. "It's functional art, and when someone wears one of my pieces, the whole artistic process is completed. Seeing people with my jewelry on makes me want to keep going."
