One Colorado-based designer is celebrating 100 of her fellow female creators by sharing their diverse stories in a wide-ranging book and artist showcase.
Designer Linda Kozloff-Turner launched a “heart-driven project” in 2016: telling the story of her peers through a book and accompanying exhibition. The completely self-funded labor of love birthed a two-volume coffee table publication featuring 100 women designers who share their personal and professional connections to jewelry.
“I wanted this piece to be inspirational, educational and informational,” says Kozloff-Turner, owner of Christine Marguerite Designs in Boulder, Colorado. “I wanted people to be able to problem-solve with these women. That’s why I asked the hard questions.”
The author, who decided not to feature her own work in the book, interviewed her subjects over seven years, asking each one to tell her story in her own words and share a piece of wisdom that has become a life motto.
“This isn’t a fluff piece,” asserts Kozloff-Turner. “This got very deep, very fast. There’s sorrow, there’s joy, there’s births, there’s deaths, there’s catalysts of unimaginable nature.”
The highs and lows
Her criteria for selecting the featured designers included a high level of skill and accomplishment, as well as a distinct style. She wanted to offer a real global cross-section. “And they also had to have a heck of a story, because the story was what I was really after about their lives,” says the high-jewelry artist.
The 100 women include personalities as diverse as Spanish designer Teresa Escudero; Lucia Silvestri, Bulgari’s creative director for high jewelry; China-born, California-based goldsmith Baiyang Qiu; and Australian designer Margot McKinney.
In her career, which spans multiple decades, Kozloff-Turner has experienced the more challenging aspects of being a woman in the industry. Her interviewees’ testimonies vindicated her own outlook.
“I heard a lot of stuff that was highly disconcerting,” she relates. “Manufacturing was terrifying. Women don’t dare to go into some of these manufacturers. Not only are they denigrated, but they’re also at risk. It’s pretty rough. And so today, I still hear stories of women dealing with photographers, manufacturers, gem cutters and stone dealers that are incredibly adverse to their existence.”
The bespoke jewelry designer sees her work as a manifesto for greater equality in the trade. “My whole focus is what we have to bring to the table as women, and our divine feminine wisdom is equally as important as the numbers for any accounting system.”
A tale of resilience
As the project unfolded over seven years, some of the interviewees’ life circumstances changed, and their contributions had to be entirely rewritten. A common thread among all the designers, notes Kozloff-Turner, is that they are still in business despite the challenges of Covid-19.
“All of the women said they put their brick-and-mortar to the side [during the pandemic] and focused on keeping the manufacturers, the families that kept them alive, supported. And I thought, that is such a beautiful point,” she says.
Kozloff-Turner thinks readers will look at the designers’ work differently after discovering their stories, as the personal informs every choice of symbol, theme and motif.
Her ambition for the accompanying exhibition is to feature one piece of jewelry by each of the women — and every time something sells, to replace it with a new creation. At the time of this writing, the author was still finalizing details for the showcase.
Women of Jewelry features forewords by Iris Van der Veken, executive director of the Watch and Jewellery Initiative 2030, and Michelle Orman, president of Last Word Communications. For each book that sells, the author will provide grant money to the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) and the Women’s Jewelry Association (WJA).
Women of Jewelry by Linda Kozloff-Turner, designed by Peggy Sands, is available to pre-order.
Main image: Designer and author Linda Kozloff-Turner. (Linda Kozloff-Turner)
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