The Painterly Process of Margery Hirschey’s Designs
Margery Hirschey’s favorite part of her role as jewelry designer is finding gemstones that make her heart flutter with excitement—the type of stones that immediately ignite her imagination.
Hirschey begins with an assortment of boulder opals, all shades of tourmalines, aquamarine and a rich palette of other families of gemstones. For one recent pair of earrings, she strayed from her mixed hues and decided to go all green, with responsibly sourced Zambian emeralds through a collaboration with Gemfields.
Hirschey explains, “This pair of earrings is inspired by the geometry of the Art Deco movement in design.” The process is the same as when I work with multiple hues or different stones; however with this style, the perfection of the emeralds informed the layout the gems.” Hirschey plays with different configurations until she finds one that speaks to her.
Most of her styles have a range of hues and color combinations; some are mismatched (opposite positioning of stones for each earring in a pair). Others combine two different lengths, or feature similar hues in different shaped stones in the design of the piece, all creating an artistic painterly feel. Some even take on the look of a Gaudi mosaic.
As for the emeralds, they enchant with their asymmetry and movement.
Here Hirschey shows us the process of how they were created.
CHOOSING THE EMERALDS
WORKING ON THE LAYOUT WIH THE GOLD CASTINGS
THE FINISHED PRODUCT AFTER SETTING, SHOWN IN THE EAR
