Barbara Westwood speaks about her artistic philosophy and her bold, eternal designs.

By Jessica Teisch

Artist and jewelry designer Barbara Westwood has a simple, yet profound, philosophy: Connect the personal with the universal, and everything will fall into place. Her jewelry-courageous, bold, elemental-reflects this belief. "If my pieces have the ability to help their wearers remember their true, essential nature, then I've created a connection that wasn't there before," she explains.

For Barbara, jewelry has always symbolized a oneness-an integration with herself and her core values; with her husband of 30 years, photographer Sky Hall; with her select group of retailers and collectors; and with the natural world around her. Her motto, "Spirit, integrated with eternity, exposed as style by human effort" perfectly captures her vision: to capture the here and now while embodying the infinite, and to use her art as a conduit for this process.

Barbara designs her one-of-a-kind pieces from her forest-surrounded studio, perched 7,000 feet above sea level in Monument, Colorado. While her manufacturing takes place in Beverly Hills and she works with people all over the world, from Japanese collectors to Brazilian opal miners, Barbara crafts all of the wax models herself. "My hands touch every piece of jewelry," she says. "I'm a very small business, inspired by the love that it takes to produce my art." This circle of love-after all, everyone with whom she works is linked by their devotion to their craft-includes her gem suppliers, master stone cutters Steve Walters of Utah and Bernd and Tom Munsteiner of Germany, the select retailers "who really understand what I'm doing" and her collectors. "As long as I continue to make jewelry as spectacular as I can, then every part of this process falls into place," Barbara declares.

Fate, of course, comprises only one part of Barbara's success; knowing what one wants, how to acquire it, and how to best convey it is equally important. "I wake up each morning grateful that I created a career as an artist," Barbara stresses. This choice-and her ability to translate her mind's eye into her hands' work-allows her to dictate her journey and, through artistic symbols, reflect the peace and happiness she finds from within.

Intending to embark on a career in advertising design, Barbara started out as a painter. At age 19, she enrolled in an adult education class and made her first wax casting. "I knew that was it," Barbara says. While casting waxes and working in sales in Beverly Hills, she vowed to master all facets of jewelry making. Barbara returned to California State Long Beach, where she studied under Dieter Mullerstach and Alvin Pine and earned a degree in jewelry and metalsmithing.

With her minimalist painter's sensibilities, Barbara began to "paint with gems." She immediately connected with large, colored stones and raw, mysterious crystals, which evolved into her trademark "Barbara Westwood" designs. To Barbara, each stone represents the law of attraction-between the atoms that travel thousands of miles through magma and coalesce to form a crystal, and between artist and wearer. "How beautiful is the universe that creates these unions," she exclaims. Rich, bold gemstones-including citrine, peridot, pink tourmaline, banded agate, rutilated quartz and rhodolite-not only inspire Barbara's designs, but also teach her to live fully. The 18-karat yellow gold that frames her stones, as well as her elemental, dramatic shapes, creates a powerful statement. "The only technique I use is to truly give of myself," Barbara concludes. "I am as straightforward as a minimalist can be. It's not a crowded piece of jewelry."

Barbara's collections-from Doors & Windows to Stairways, Water, Earth, Water's Edge, Hearts and others-evoke the eternal wonders of nature and our connection with these universal markers of time. In the stunning pendant Waterfall, part of the Water Collection, a rare, one-of-a-kind Ukrainian aquamarine with diamonds and an 18-karat gold cap contains carved bubbles that represent the foam at a waterfall's base. In the Doors & Windows Collection, a simple gold bezel and diamond accents frame a black rectangular onyx pendant with citrine. In the Earth Collection, horizon lines define the pieces. The Clouds Collection utilizes carved quartz crystal or aquamarine; Rain portrays the artist's minimalist sensibilities. Barbara expresses continual amazement at her Glacier Collection; comprised of phantom crystal quartz formed over 250 million years ago, the gold-edged pieces "remind us of who we truly are." And her Hearts Collection-necklaces with heart pendants of diamonds, onyx, pink tourmaline, agate or aquamarine-"symbolizes our connections with each other."

Barbara designs each piece to celebrate the intangible emotional bonds that make us human. Like music and poetry, much of her jewelry is highly personal and abstract. "I tell people that I make jewelry absolutely for me," says Barbara. "I don't consider the trends or price points." By her own admission, she neither follows nor leads industry trends. "Rather, something within me ignites the mysteries of these stones, and the energy I derive from them I extend outward to create a 'oneness' between myself, the piece and the buyer." Her husband describes her pieces as "lacking ego," since they have universal appeal.

Although most of Barbara's jewelry is one-of-a-kind (she signs, but has no need to number, each piece), all of it is interchangeable to reflect the wearer's many moods. Called "Everywhere Artwhere" by collectors, her jewelry revitalizes itself over time. A single gold hoop earring, for example, can support a triangular onyx, pearl, opal or half-carat diamond. Pendants have pave diamond tapered bales or slides that connect to different gold chains. Some are even reversible to allow the wearer to don two looks in one piece.
In the end, each piece mirrors Barbara's artistic philosophy while generating new connections and meanings for the collector. "If you don't go deep within you," Barbara concludes, "you go without. This journey and my jewelry is a result of going from within and reflecting my personal journey outward." Her vision has not only produced courageous, matchless designs, but also linked us back to our true, essential nature.