Why I Design Jewelry for Everyday Wear

I’m often asked how metal became my preferred medium, and jewelry my art form of choice. The funny thing is, I didn’t set out to become a jewelry designer at all. I went to Virginia Tech thinking I would become an architect, and somewhere along the way, a wall full of tiny shoe models changed the direction of my life.

I used to wander around the design studios late at night looking at everyone’s creative spaces, and I remember becoming completely mesmerized by one woman’s studio. She had about thirty models of a shoe displayed on the wall. There was something about being able to pull an idea off the wall and actually hold it in your hand that immediately made sense to me. I switched to Industrial Design, also called Product Design, and without realizing it at the time, started moving toward the work I would eventually spend my life doing.

Jewelry had always been there in the background. Even as a kid, I was constantly making things I could wear or touch. I could lose hours making elaborate woven bracelets or collaging the walls of my bedroom. Looking back now, the connection feels pretty obvious, but I certainly didn’t know then that making things with my hands would eventually become my career.

How I Started Designing Jewelry

I still remember some of my very first jewelry sales. I had taken a half-day class where I learned how to fuse silver, then made five or ten pairs of simple silver hoops with a slightly hammered finish. I brought them with me to a street festival in San Francisco and couldn’t believe how quickly they sold.

That experience taught me something that has stayed with me ever since. People wanted jewelry they could actually live in. They wanted pieces they didn’t have to save for a particular outfit or occasion, things they could put on in the morning and wear to work, dinner, the grocery store and everywhere in between.

What Makes Jewelry Good for Everyday Wear?

For me, the best everyday jewelry feels like an extension of the person wearing it. It can be simple without disappearing, interesting without becoming difficult to wear and distinctive enough that people begin to associate it with you. Eventually, it stops feeling like an accessory you chose that morning and starts feeling like part of your personal uniform.

That has always been the sweet spot I’m designing toward. I love playing with different metals, shapes, widths, finishes and proportions, but I want the finished piece to work with your life. You shouldn’t have to stand in front of your closet wondering whether your jewelry goes with what you’re wearing.

My Own Everyday Jewelry Uniform

I’ve always liked to make a subtle statement in the way I dress. My wardrobe tends to be fairly simple, which gives me plenty of room to layer jewelry and make that the interesting part. A stack of rings, a combination of bracelets or a great pair of hoops can do a lot of heavy lifting.

Some of my favorite CMD pieces today aren’t all that far removed from those first silver hoops I sold in San Francisco. I’ve always called a great everyday pair my “grocery store hoops” because I like having earrings on even if I’m only running out for something mundane. There’s something about putting on a pair that makes me feel feminine, powerful and pulled together without trying too hard.

Jewelry You Actually Wear

More than two decades into this business, one of the greatest compliments I can receive is still hearing someone tell me, “I wear this every day.” I love designing beautiful jewelry, of course, but I’m much more interested in making beautiful jewelry that becomes part of someone’s actual life.

The pieces we wear over and over collect our stories along the way. They come to work with us, travel with us, celebrate things with us and eventually become so familiar that we feel a little strange when we forget to put them on. To me, that’s when jewelry becomes much more interesting than something that simply completes an outfit.

That’s the kind of jewelry I wanted to make when I sold those first few pairs of hoops, even if I didn’t have the words for it yet. Turns out, I’m still chasing the very same thing.

Here’s to jewelry worth wearing the hell out of,
Colleen

© Colleen Mauer Designs. All rights reserved.
Published: October 15, 2019
Updated: August 14, 2026