Meghan Schmiedel grew up in New England where she was surrounded by nature, beautiful farms, and an array of animals. In the springtime, the poplar trees bloomed, filling the air with white fluffs that danced their way to the ground where they’d gather to form
faux snowdrifts. Amidst these ethereal squalls, one could find vultures weeding through entrails, squirrels outrunning hawks, and foxes and the like trying to outrun people. Her jewelry is inspired by this coexistence of life and death within nature, and the fluidity of beauty and decay resulting from it.

It’s the strange juxtapositions often present in death—blood shimmering like gems in the sunshine, and peaceful faces at odds with mangled bodies— that not only inspire her but also influence her materials.
Working from her personal photo library of animals she’s come across over the years, she paints them using watercolor enamels which enable her to lend a delicateness to the dark imagery and continue enamel’s history of being used in particularly sentimental pieces of jewelry, making it the perfect medium to honor the often discarded lives of the animals she depicts.

Once out of the kiln, she hand-strings each enameled piece using an array of beads and pearls that transform the physical morbidness of death into something eye-catching and enticing, while also nodding to cemetery immortelles and peoples’ never-ending plight of coping with loss and their own impending death. While her jewelry can be seen as tokens of remembrance, it’s also a reminder for the wearer that in life, there is a balance between all things and that to step into the light, you have to walk through the shadows.