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Designer Diane Dorsey’s aesthetic comes from a place of life experience. Her jewelry is both a testament to her skills as an artisan and her overarching essence as a woman who’s lived. With a BFA in painting and architecture, and an MA in Art Education, Diane’s work is informed by a technician’s knowledge of form and balance, as well as an artist’s eye for scale and patina, and her understanding of how all beings interact in this world drives her designs. We caught up with Diane prior to her JA New York debut to hear about some of her most recent sources of inspiration!
JA New York: How would you describe your brand to someone who is not familiar with it? Give us your “elevator pitch!”
Diane Dorsey: My collection is essentially about me, as a sculptor, hand-carving, casting, and building my work in jewel-sized bites. I am inspired by natural forms and simple shapes that surround me, with organic origins and textures, like the staurolite crystal, a four-leaf clover, an egg or a rose. My work is made exclusively in recycled 18k gold and sterling silver, with touches of natural colored diamonds and stones.
JA New York: Do you have a particular wearer in mind when you’re designing?
DD: I do not have a particular wearer in mind when I’m designing…I design purely what inspires me, and it’s my hope that the wearer will find my work and that it touches that same place within them.
JA New York: What is your biggest source of design inspiration?
DD: Always nature. I’m profoundly and endlessly curious about the natural world that surrounds me, and of course, it’s ever-changing with time and place. From fields of clover in Ohio as a little girl, to the high desert landscape of New Mexico and its staurolites and turquoise to my most recent move to the Central Coast of California. At the ranch I’m living on, there’s a whole new light, and roses, and dragonflies…all of it expanding my designs.
JA New York: What’s one thing that always makes you smile?
DD: The never-ending antics of my two young Abyssinian cats, Blubie and Sunny.
JA New York: If you could be a TV/Movie villain, who would you be and why?
DD: Catwoman, without a doubt – the ultimate femme fatale and feminist. I’d slip into my black catsuit and slink my way around, involved in capers with ancient treasure and jewelry… not to mention using my wiles to dupe the Dynamic Duo. Plus, I’d wear my own design of a cat medallion around my neck.
The JA New York Summer Show is taking place July 23-25th at the Jacob K. Javits Center. Click here to register to attend!
