For all their startling variety, kaleidoscopic colors, and intriguing provenance, minerals often aren’t seen in the fine jewelry arena. David Yurman and Lydia Courteille have been known to feature azurite or rhodochrosite in their lineups, but the vast majority of colored stone collections stick to the usual gemstone suspects.
Jamie Turner Designs, a new direct-to-consumer brand based in Austin, Texas, is bucking that trend. Introduced in November, the brand showcases a handful of top-quality mineral specimens—including hemimorphite and hematoid quartz—in its debut collection, reflecting co-founder Robert Turner’s passion for stone collecting.
“I’m drawn to the uniqueness of gemstones,” Turner tells JCK. “They’re so much rarer than diamonds.”
The real estate developer and serial entrepreneur fell in love with colored stones in the mid-1990s, when he attended the Tucson gem shows in search of rare specimens, a passion that paralleled his interest in contemporary art. After years of collecting, his wife asked him what he planned to do with the gems he’d amassed. His reply? “I’m going to make jewelry.”
About six years in the making, the resulting brand, named for Turner’s college-age daughter, Jamie, came into fruition with the help of co-founder Patrick Dobbs, an industry veteran who serves as head of production.
“Robert writes the lyrics and I make music out of them,” says Dobbs.
The pieces—which are made in Austin in 18k yellow, white, and rose gold, and, on occasion, platinum—feature signature elements such as the use of negative space, filigree, honeycomb structures, and a distinct curve that “permeates everything,” says Turner (as in this simple 18k gold bangle).
“I’ve always been fascinated by math,” he says. “From the order it brings to the world to the way it shows up in nature—distinct shapes, repeating patterns, and lines. I created a precise yet simple curve that’s seen in the majority of our pieces. This gives the collection a distinct look and feel, while adding a sense of cohesiveness to the line.”
The Jamie Turner range opens at $740 for a simple pair of Curve studs and tops out at $16,130 for a spectacular Cracked Earth pendant set with a tear-shape blue-green hemimorphite mined in Brazil. The pendant range also includes styles featuring a fiery orange hematoid quartz ($10,020), a showstopping lavender boulder opal ($13,730), and a deep blue tanzanite ($15,820).
The brand campaign, shot in Moab, Utah, by Benard Creative, provides the perfect backdrop to the pendants, which play on Turner’s love for organic forms paired with his mathematical approach to design.
“We use irregular, natural stones and set them on precise mathematical curves,” Turner says. “It’s cutting-edge technology married with age-old craftsmanship. Everything we do is a study in contrasts, the more unexpected, the better.”
Top: Cascade hematoid quartz pendant by Jamie Turner Designs, shot in Moab, Utah
Follow JCK on Instagram: @jckmagazineFollow JCK on Twitter: @jckmagazine
Follow JCK on Facebook: @jckmagazine
