rebecca myers design

Nearly 20 years ago, Baltimore jewelry designer Rebecca Myers traveled to Costa Rica. The beauty she saw there changed the direction of her work.

The artist: Born in Philadelphia, Myers grew up on the West end of Allentown and Philadelphia PA. She attended the Baum School of Art at an early age and later graduated from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia.

The company/studio: Rebecca Myers Design, started in Allentown. Rebecca Myers Collection, as it is now known, has been based in Baltimore since 2009.

Myers’ jewelry production studio occupies a space in the back of her showroom, which is dedicated to her work as well as other small studio brands of ceramics, glass, jewelry and paintings.

The art: Jewelry, including bands, bracelets, cuffs, earrings, necklaces, pendants and rings, elegantly inspired by natural forms and patterns found on birds, butterflies, branches and flowers.

The materials: Oxidized silver, 18k and 18ky gold, blue and white diamonds and other stones, including emerald, opal, pearl, ruby and sapphire.

What’s popular:

Feather bands (from $980).
Peacock feather earrings (from $1,600).
Two-tone evil eye halo earrings ($1,800).
Wide feather rings with channel-set diamonds ($1,275).

Other favorites:

Monarch Wing earrings with scattered diamonds ($2,200).
Garden branch stacking ring set (from $975).
Ruby hollow earrings ($2,100).

Inspirations:

Jewelry designers Cheryl Rydmark and Pat Flynn.
Seed pods, garden imagery and the patterns and textures in the natural world that she first saw on a trip to Costa Rica and sees around her now.

The textures and patterns of the seed pods, shells, flowers, insects frogs and butterflies of the Costa Rican jungle were intoxicatingly beautiful, said Myers, who is driven to capture that beauty in her work.

“I started with casting one of the seed pods I brought back with me,” said Myers. “That piece is still in the collection 20 years later. It’s been a very successful design.”

Fun, special or unusual commissions: A client wanted a four-tiered zebra cuff, a technical as well as a design challenge.

“It turned out great,” said Myers. “But I torched a dozen self-locking tweezers on that project.”

Big breaks: In 1996, won the American Jewelry Design Council’s New Talent contest.

“I had been trying to launch my business since graduating from Tyler in 1991,” she said. “I gave myself five years to make a successful launch.

“The news of that award kept me from moving into a different career and relegating jewelry to a hobby.”

What’s new: The nests (on pendants from $2,500) to rings (from $1,100). Because the nests are complicated pieces to craft, the company has started using cad and 3D printing.

What’s next: Exhibiting at: