Rising Star

Vickie Riggs

Vickie Riggs
Originality in Form

"Everything for me is about design. I want my jewelry to connect with people in the same way that beautiful art does."

>> Sarah Siegel, Contributing Writer

Vickie Riggs, of Vickie Riggs Design has spent her career in the fine arts, but her true love is goldsmithing and jewelry design. “I want people to experience the splendor of each piece. I want them to think ‘Oh, that is so beautiful.’ Above all, I want to create jewelry that people appreciate as art.”

Each piece Vickie makes is an original. She starts by finding a striking stone or distinctive pearl and designs the piece around its unique attributes. The form, color, and shape of the stone are what spur the designer to create the rest of the piece, using gold and other stones to set off its natural beauty. Although she is frequently inspired by Mother Nature, she does not use it as a “direct inspiration.” Rather, she tries to represent nature without replicating it.

One of her favorite pieces, the award-winning Tahitian Night Brooch, shows Nature in all of her abstract glory. As Vickie describes, “The abalone shell has patterning that reminds me of the sea. The swirls of diamonds are like stars, and the pearl, like a moon, floats above the shell!”

Although her method makes it difficult for Vickie to develop a signature style, she feels that the originality infused into each piece makes her jewelry more valuable to her clients. Her Great Purple Pearl Pin is a perfect example. Built around a stunning purple pearl, the pin uses sapphires and flowing rays of white, yellow, and pink gold to capture and complement the pearl’s rich tones. Not content to choose one side of the pearl to display, Vickie designed the brooch in such a way that the pearl can be rotated using a small knob. This gives the wearer the pleasure to enjoy all aspects of this unique jewel.

Vickie began her career as a graphic designer and later opened and operated a successful advertising agency. When she left the advertising field, she returned to her original love: fine arts. After taking a continuing education course in metalsmithing, Vickie knew that she had found her niche. She loved filing metal, shaping metal, and above all, creating three dimensional works of art. However, the young artist did not stop there. It was not enough for her to find the career of her dreams. She wanted to become a highly skilled professional, which led her to earn diplomas in jewelry design, gemology, and jewelry manufacturing from the Gemological Institute of America (GIA).

Going forward, Vickie Riggs hopes to place her work in mixed-media galleries, so that it will be accessible to her target clientele: true art lovers. As she herself says, bringing art into people’s lives is “the essence of why I do what I do.”

www.vickieriggsdesigns.com