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Up Close and Personal With Meghan Harris

ocal artist and jewelry maker Meghan Harris came to Bluffton two years ago from Savannah. Her elegant, one-of-a-kind pieces are expressions of her creative vision and the way she perceives the natural world around her.

Bluffton Breeze: How did you get into making jewelry?
Meghan Harris: We had really advanced metalsmithing classes at my high school in Indiana, which is pretty unusual. That’s how I got my start. Then I went to SCAD and majored in jewelry and metalsmithing. I wanted to stay in Savannah because I loved the historic district. When I moved there everything in my house was black, white and modern, but I slowly started to like old things. I opened a little store called MDH Designs with jewelry and paintings by myself and four other people. I had the store for about four or five years and by the end there were 38 artists. It was a lot of work and I didn’t have time to make much jewelry so I decided to move to Bluffton and buy a house where I could have my own studio. I had gotten into Lucky Magazine twice so the phone calls and hits on my website made it possible for me to close up shop and go back to doing what I wanted to do. Now I work at home and send my stuff out to stores.

BB: Where do you sell your work?
MH: I have stuff in Savannah, Atlanta, Chicago and Indianapolis, plus I’ve done shows in other places like California

BB: Describe your aesthetic.
MH: I work mainly in silver and gold and I like hammered textures and earthy looks. I like to really work with the metal and I don’t try to make it crisp at all; it’s very organic. I also like to use different surface techniques like etching. I travel around to gem and mineral shows and handpick every stone I use, that’s why most of my pieces are truly one of a kind. I don’t really sketch things out first; I just sit down in the studio and start playing.

BB: Where do you find your inspiration?
MH: I only look outside of jewelry, mostly to nature, but also to other artwork such as paintings. I don’t look at jewelry books because then a design might stay in the back of my head and I end up creating something similar. All the long, wrapped chains I do were inspired by cocoons, and I have these rings I call “twiggy vines” that are all different and they kind of look like kudzu vines.

BB: What is the idea behind your anatomically correct heart line?
MH: That was my thesis in college. I did all these really large hearts, both anatomical and abstract, and those turned into smaller, more wearable pieces. I just figured that an anatomically correct heart was a more powerful image than the valentine heart. I had a husband give one to his wife on her first mother’s day, and I’ve had fathers give them to their daughters for some special event in their life.

What is important to me is to make a piece that someone holds on to. We have so much disposable stuff in the world; everyone just has so much junk now. I want people to get emotionally attached to something I make and want to keep it forever.

I’m also trying to use more recycled gold and silver, like I’ll look for scrap or old components that aren’t cute and I’ll melt them down. I’m trying to be more green, but it’s hard with all the chemicals we have to use.

BB: What does it mean to you to be an artist and make your living doing something you love?
MH: I can’t imagine not being creative. It’s a harder time to be doing this but I’m doing well and I feel so fortunate because people don’t have to have jewelry to survive.

Meghan’s work will be featured at the Telfair Art Fair on November 7th and 8th in Savannah. You can also visit her website: www.mdhdesigns.com.

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