The Jewelry Designer Who Collects Other People's Stories

Kim Dunham, who launched her custom signet ring collection three years ago, uses gold and sometimes gemstones to create wearable biographies Sept 25, 2019On an overcast morning last month, Kim Dunham stood in her airy home office in Lower Manhattan flipping through manila folders arranged on an accordion-style rack.

Part historian, part anthropologist, part therapist and, it could be argued, part shaman, Dunham's official designation is jewelry designer On a walk one day, as she studied the monogrammed signet ring her mother had given her for her 13th birthday, Dunham decided to try her hand at pieces that would tell the stories of their wearers Across the bottom is a Latin phrase that translates to "I shine, not burn," and the interior inscription comes from Charles Bukowski: "She's mad but she's magic.

There's no lie in her fire." She next designed a ring for her husband, and then opened the project to friends, and friends of friends; in April 2018, her business took off after Gwyneth Paltrow was photographed in one of Dunham's pieces "If someone is having difficulty opening up, I'll ask something deeper: What is your best memory from childhood? What's something you fear? How do you take time for yourself?" Once she and the client decide on a design, Dunham works with a team of master engravers in the jewelry district who often inscribe the signet backward so that the ring can be used as a seal Dunham does produce a couple of ready-made pieces, like her Brutus ring, in the shape of an eye, which shares a name with her 12-year-old chocolate Labrador, and a collection based on the seven feminine archetypes, a Jungian principle, for the Texas-based jewelry store Ylang 23. Source