Susan Hamilton Meier is the kind of jewelry designer who must feel something to understand it, whether it is holding priceless antiques in her hands or traveling to Mexico or Florence to see their artwork in person.
Objects hold energy, Meier says, like one-of-a-kind estate jewelry or a medieval altarpiece made from precious gold. The desire to understand adornment and how jewelry affects the wearer is part of the reason Meier created her jewelry brand, SunLit Fine Jewelry.
SunLit comes out of her childhood obsessions with ancient Egypt, its sun mythology, and that awesome feeling you have when sunshine warms your shoulders, Meier says. The sun symbolizes hope, light, and transformation—all things she aspires for her talismans to embody for SunLit clients.
“Jewelry is my favorite art form because you wear it on your body. It’s so intimate,” Meier says. “If you can design something someone wants to wear on their body, it’s such a privileged relationship.”
Meier’s interest in adornment started when she was a child when King Tut’s tomb gained renewed interest thanks to a popular exhibition. She went to an exhibit of Egyptian art at the Met, and for months afterward she crafted pyramids out of sugar cubes and anything else she could find.
Those early inquiries into ancient art led Meier to study art history and Italian literature at Dartmouth College, where she studied abroad in Florence. Meier says the golden treasures she experienced in Italy had a powerful impact on her.
“They were so vibrant. You can feel the passion that the artists were working with. It was so strong. They used all of that gold to communicate the strength of their feelings, and that spoke to me,” Meier says.
Meier’s first job after college was at Sotheby’s in its jewelry and precious objects department. She worked with accomplished gemologists, she says, and being in the heart of gold, gemstones, and precious materials daily inspired her.
“I physically got to hold and see the most fabulous jewelry in the world. Jewelry is unique because you can hold it—you can’t generally take a painting from the wall of an art museum and hold it in your arms,” Meier says.
At Sotheby’s, a lifelong passion for jewelry was ignited, and with it the calling to make fine jewels with her own hands. After earning her MBA from Harvard in 1998, Meier established her studio in New York City. She studied first at Jewelry Arts and then discovered wax carving at the Fred de Vos Workshop where she has worked since.
During this time, Meier also worked as a brand design consultant for large companies like Pepsico and Unilever. She got so good at untangling clients’ stories that it became her work superpower. Her other superpower? Being able to untangle jewelry, she admits. People often brought her their bracelets and necklaces that they thought were unfixable, and she could unravel them.
After many years of helping clients build brands, she finally felt ready to launch her own. “I started thinking about what was the thread between Egyptians, pre-Columbians, early Christian art with all of its golden halos, and it was all of the iconography around the sun.”
Her many, many ideas filtered down to one cohesive one: the feeling of sunlight. Everything that goes into SunLit jewelry and its collections has to make sense in her sunshine-obsessed point of view. Her jewelry has to be wearable, sculptural, and feel radiant.
“It has to feel like that definition of what sunlight feels like on your body,” Meier says. “What does it feel like when you have sunlight on your skin on that first spring day after a terrible winter? It’s that feeling that everything will be fine. It’s a powerful, peaceful feeling.”
Top: Susan Hamilton Meier created SunLit Fine Jewelry as a way to channel her love for gold and ancient art into a jewelry business (photos courtesy of SunLit Fine Jewelry).
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