Introducing
Cathy Marlow
After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Science degree in Advertising, I spent 20 years working as a litigation paralegal. It was very investigative and a great learning experience, but after 20 years I knew it was time to focus on my artistic side.
I’ve always known I was creative, but I was not able to discern the best medium to express my creativity until I mixed travel with jewelry design.
I started taking jewelry fabrication classes in 2007 through Austin Community College in Austin, Texas because I was told that it was an excellent program and the instructors were all certified master jewelers. After a couple of years of fabrication classes, I began taking CAD jewelry design classes with Belgian master jeweler Philippe Dewailly. It was during the next five years or so that I found my true passion as a jewelry designer.
In 2012 I bought the Matrix Jewelry Design software program and started my own design business. I also rented a jeweler’s bench from Philippe for a year or so to create finished jewelry pieces from my designs.
We were traveling in Paris one year, and I fell in love with the architecture and the historical significance of the city as it relates to fashion. To me, Paris embraces all things feminine. I began to notice that many of the older cities around the world we visited had the same ancient creative energy.
It was not until I trained in CAD design that I was able to mesh my love of travel into wearable jewelry. Nearly all of my pieces are memories of what I saw while strolling through the streets of various cities around the world. Some of the cities included in my collections are inspirations from: Paris, Rome, Buenos Aries, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Ljubljana, San Francisco, Vienna, Oaxaca, New York City, London and Chicago.
My Process
My initial process to design a piece of jewelry logically starts with the inspiration. I first draw the design on the Gemvision CAD jewelry design program. This is where the design becomes a solid piece of jewelry.
Creating the actual design in metal (sterling or gold) takes several time consuming but exciting steps.
The second step is to upload the file to one of the jewelry manufacturing companies who mill or 3D print the piece into a wax or a hard resin model.
During the third step, the model is prepared for casting in either sterling silver or gold.
The last stage of production includes stone setting and polishing. All of my Argentium/tarnish resistant sterling pieces are oxidized to enhance the various layers of my pieces. The oxidation adds depth and character to each piece. The gold pieces are not oxidized due to metal properties.