New York Goldsmith Deborah Meyers Imbues Her Jewelry With Artistry And Sustainably Sourced Gemstones

In a world where globally branded, mass produced 18-karat gold jewelry is touted as “luxury,” the handmade 22-karat gold creations of goldsmiths like Deborah Meyers appeal to those in search of jewels imbued with the exclusive luster of high karat gold. Her brand, Deborah Meyers Experience, retails at ABC Carpet and Home in New York City. “The people who wear my pieces, especially those in the arts, respect that I am a classically trained goldsmith who creates contemporary adornments with that background,” she says. While Meyers actors such as Debra Messing own her jewels, the goldsmith’s more accessibly priced bracelets, rings, necklaces and earrings comprised of 22-karat, sterling silver and diamond bangles have also won her a following among those who respect and collect luxurious artisanal jewelry.

As befits a serious applied artist, Meyers waxes poetic about her preferred materials. “While 24-karat gold may be the finest and purest form of gold, it’s far too soft to be used to make jewels designed for everyday wear.” 22-karat gold, however, she suggests, “is nearly as radiant as pure gold, but much harder due to the metals that it is alloyed with.” Like sunshine made solid, “My 22-karat gold alloy beams bright; it is the perfect material for ultra-fine jewelry such as mine.” For the uninitiated, 24-karat gold is comprised of just under 100 percent gold. It is categorized as having a “fineness” of 999. The 22-karat gold that Meyers uses consists of 91.6 percent gold and has a fineness of 916; the remainder is comprised of other metals. “916 or 22-karat is historically the most widely used fineness for gold bullion coins,” Meyers notes. British sovereigns, South African krugerrands and American Gold eagles are all made of 22-karat gold. On the subject of gold fineness, Meyers explains, “The fineness of gold jewelry refers to the weight of fine or pure metal in the piece, in proportion to the total weight. This includes alloying base metals plus any impurities.” Goldsmiths like Meyers add alloying metals to increase the hardness and density of the gold, to influence the color of the gold, and to decrease the cost per weight per piece.

Inspired by the 22-karat gold jewels of Etruscans, ancient Romans and other vanished civilizations, Meyers and her creations are further distinguished by the ethically sourced Canadian diamonds, sustainably mined Brazilian tourmalines and other gemstones she uses to great artistic effect. “I source my gemstones from such New York dealers as Robert Bentley, who purchases from only those mines that he has visited to ensure that they are safe, ethically operated ventures,” she explains. “He and the other dealers I buy from only do business with mines which treat their employees well and pay more than fair wages.” Meyers also takes care to purchase diamonds that come from Canada, “which is renowned for how its Arctic diamond mines help support indigenous people. “Moreover, Canada has some of the world’s strictest diamond mining and environmental regulations and mining companies there practice environmental remediation on landscapes that have been altered by mining.”

     Meyers is part of a new breed of enlightened designers and goldsmiths whose goal as a maker is, “To create the most beautiful and classic jewels I can, with materials that have been mined in as responsible a manner as possible.” Toward that end, her creations are fabricated using ancient, labor-intensive artisanal techniques such as granulation, which reached its fullest artistic and technical expression over 3000 years ago in Etruria, an area which now lies within central Italy. The most notable Etrurian granulated jewelry was created between the eighth and second centuries, B.C.E.  Even with today’s tools and savoir-faire, few goldsmiths possess the skill to match the caliber of Etruscan granulation. “Intriguingly, granulation became obscure around 600 B.C.E. and the knowledge of this process disappeared for more than a thousand years,” Meyers notes.

    When creating granulated adornments, Meyers decorates the surface of a jewel with small spheres of gold, (granules), according to her design pattern. This allows her to create her various distinctive motifs, such as human lips, out of tiny spheres of 22-karat gold. After the spheres are painstakingly placed on thin beaten sheets of gold, the entire piece is heated to a temperature high enough to form a permanent bond between the surface and the spheres. “If you heat it too high or too long, the whole thing just blobs up in a mess,” Meyers notes. “Timing is everything.” Though she granulates in a way that is virtually identical to how the Etruscans did, Meyers creates designs that embody a sleek and sometimes cheeky 21st century chic.

     Fascinated by gold and gems since childhood, Meyers used to save up her allowance and part-time job wages to buy jewelry for members of her family. “From a very early age,” she recalls, “I believed that when you love someone, one of the most powerful ways to express that love is by giving them jewelry. Always.” One of the more philosophical goldsmiths working today, Meyers received a Master of Theological Studies degree from Harvard Divinity School in 1993. She worked as a hospital chaplain in various hospitals before she caught the gold bug and began studying with master goldsmith Celia Bauer in New York City. “The act of creating jewelry is a holy process,” Meyers asserts. “The diamond which takes eons to form in the nucleus of Mother Earth is a paradigm of her preciousness.” 

     While she reveres all that which is part of Nature, Meyers also believes that all which comes from inside the earth possesses “a gravitas that cannot be emulated through manufactured means. Natural diamonds, earth-mined stones and, of course, gold,” she continues, “all these possess primal power.” Noting that many people may be unaware that gold-packed meteorites crash landed on earth 100 million years and that’s how earth got its gold, Meyers observes, “Designing, fabricating and wearing gold jewelry physically and emotionally connects us to the universe, and to cosmic events that happened long ago. It makes perfect sense to me that we should want to wear gold. Perhaps we feel the need to wear gold on our bodies because somehow, it satisfies our need for beauty as well as our craving to feel more connected to the cosmos.”