Ariane Zurcher

Fashion As A Second Language Blog

Passion for the arts runs deep in the sap on both sides of Ariane Zurcher's family tree: her maternal grandparents, Walter and Elizabeth Paepcke, spearheaded Aspen, Colorado's development and founded its cultural underpinnings (the Aspen Institute, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Aspen Design Conference), while her Swiss father was curator of pre-Columbian and African art at Stanford University. So it's no surprise that when Zurcher turned her hand to designing and making jewelry, much of her inspiration came from years spent absorbing art's resonance throughout human history and across cultures.

It's also immediately apparent in the way she talks about the collection. The pieces may bear her name, but, despite her training and skill (she's a true bench jeweler who can shepherd a design from wax model to finished product), she seems to think less about her part in their creation and more about the raw materials, the civilizations, and the artists that inspire her.

For example, there are gorgeous rubellite-and-diamond earrings with removable indicolite tourmaline drops, that might have been discovered in King Tut's tomb; bold rings with a faceted amethyst, rubellite or star sapphire mounted in large, 18k brushed gold "pre-Columbian" bowls (some with raised scrolls that hint at Calder's squiggles); a blunt "Brancusi" necklace of big gold beads interspersed with mixed beryls; and the Samadhi group, based on intricately-linked gold discs (like Japanese rock gardens) that are punctuated by candy-colored stones.

This January, the Fashion Group International annointed Zurcher a "Rising Star of 2009" in the category of fine jewelry. Visit her website to see more of her work, plus a schedule of trunk shows (there's one in New York on Friday, March 6, followed by visits to Aspen, Tulsa, and Washington, D.C.). Just think of it as the perfect guided tour: shopping and cultural outing, all in one.

Modern Jewelery

This is a center stage tend, one to highlight in showcases, window displays - anywhere you can catch consumers' eyes. This trend also offers a good way to work loose gemstones into your displays to promote your custom work. Every customer has a favorite color, so the rainbow of gems available is a good conversation starter. Try tying in your buying trips to Tucson and other shows to highlight the fact that your store is a source for all kinds of gemstones. For the fashion forward, the emphasis of the happy look provides a much needed antidote to negativity and the winer blahs.

(pictured at right) Ariane Zurcher's 18k yellow gold brooch with multicolored sapphires, suggested retail $5,700, and 18k rose gold cuff with rubellite tourmalines, suggested retial $12,000 - (917) 608-2817

Rising Srat in Fine Jewelry

Fashion Group International held its 12th annual Rising Star Awards Luncheon at the Rainbow Room NYC to recognize and celebrate outstanding new talent in the industry. I am pleased to announce Ariane Zurcher has been named the 2009 Rising Star in the Fine Jewelry Category.

After art-filled life, Zurcher at home in jewelry

ASPEN — When she wasn’t founding modern Aspen, Elizabeth Paepcke looked at her world with a designer’s eye.

In her early years in Chicago, the late Paepcke designed the windows of the Marshall Field’s department store. When husband Walter bought the Hotel Jerome in the 1940s, “Pussy,” as Elizabeth was mostly known, went from room to room, redecorating.

The designer’s eye has apparently been passed down two generations to Ariane Zurcher, the Paepcke’s granddaughter by way of Paula Zurcher, Walter and Elizabeth’s middle child. As a kid growing up in Woodside, in the San Francisco Bay area — Zurcher considered Aspen, where she spent summers and Christmas holidays, more as home — she loved to draw, and envisioned herself studying fine art.

That notion was drummed out of her head as impractical, so she switched focus slightly and entered New York City’s Parsons School of Design to study fashion. Of her class of 110, only 23 graduated, including Zurcher.

“Long line of tenacious women, you know,” said Zurcher, who pronounces the Paepcke name “PEP-kuh,” as do all the family members.

But fashion didn’t make perfect sense to Zurcher. “There was a lot I loved about fashion, but there were parts [that] were so foreign to me,” she said. “I felt alien on that level.”

Zurcher again switched gears, moving into the advertising world. She rose to be the creative director at an agency, and also worked on a documentary film about eating disorders.

When her daughter, Emma, now 6, was diagnosed with autism, all creativity ceased as Zurcher focused her energy on finding a solution to the disease.

“I stopped everything,” said Zurcher, a regular Aspen visitor who lives in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. “I quit my job. I was going to find a cure. I really felt I was going to find a way to cure her. I read everything; I talked to everyone.”

The futility of that quest took a toll on Zurcher, and her husband, Richard Long, an entrepreneur and writer, advised her to find another outlet for her energy. “He kept saying, ‘You’re not going to cure her; we can help her,’” Zurcher said. “He told me, ‘You’re a creative being; you need to be creating something.’”

Zurcher knew someone who made jewelry, and on a whim she bought some basic jewelry-making supplies. In jewelry she found not only a distraction, but a passion. “I just fell in love,” she said. “I didn’t know if I was any good, but I loved the process.”

Zurcher has a coming out of sorts in the town she thinks of as home. Her first trunk show opens Wednesday, in the Library at the Hotel Jerome — a space which she remembers, from her grandmother’s stories, as the old soda fountain where miners would order milkshakes laced with whiskey. The show runs through Saturday, July 5, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day.

Having found a channel for her creativity, Zurcher honed her skills. She took a class in a tiny space on the Bowery, one of Manhattan’s seedier locales. When she expressed interest in furthering her knowledge, the teacher invited Zurcher to share her studio space, setting the stage for Zurcher to become something of a protege in goldsmithing. She also took further classes in setting gems and making clasps.

“People have been very generous and kind and helpful,” she said. “And I’ve just grabbed it. Anyone who offers training, I just say yes.”

Zurcher retains that newfound love for creating jewelry. She takes a variety of approaches to her designs: Some pieces are made with meticulous thought, using wax molds; other times, she will cut a design right from a raw piece of metal. She uses gold and semiprecious stones in one-of-a-kind designs.

“With jewelry, I feel I get to do these wild shapes,” said the 47-year-old, who has a studio in Long Island City, Queens. “It turns out, jewelry was everything I wanted to be as an artist. When I found jewelry, it was like I found home.”

stewart@aspentimes.com

Jewelry show to benefit child with autism
by Catherine Lutz, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
Thursday, February 11, 2010

Heather Rousseau/Aspen Daily News
Emma Zurcher-Long, 8, shares a moment with her mom, Ariane Zurcher, both of Aspen and New York, as she looks up toward Buttermilk Mountain before skiing Wednesday. Emma was diagnosed with autism when she was 2 1/2 years old. She will be receiving stem cell treatment in March to help with her autism. To support the treatment, Ariane will be selling handcrafted jewelry at Galerie DeVore, today through Saturday from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. All proceeds will go toward EmmaÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡s treatment.

Those shopping for Valentine's Day jewelry for their loved ones this week also have the unique opportunity of helping a young girl with autism get some groundbreaking therapy. A trunk show of award-winning jewelry designer Ariane ZurcherÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡s work will be held at AspenÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡s Galerie DeVore today through Saturday. The show is dedicated to Emma, ZurcherÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡s 8-year-old autistic daughter, and all of its proceeds will go toward a unique stem cell treatment she is receiving next month in Costa Rica. Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡I felt this was an opportunity to bend my creative talents to help Emma with this stem cell therapy, which weÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡re hoping will enhance her life,Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡ said Zurcher, "and give me an opportunity to show the work and hopefully raise some awareness.Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡ Emma was diagnosed with autism when she was 2 years old, after being examined by a series of pediatricians and experts when her parents noticed that something just seemed not right. Over time, her speech had regressed, said Zurcher, and developmentally she seemed just a little bit behind. But it wasnÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡t until Zurcher started researching herself Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡ reading every book on potential disorders she could find until she came to one about autism Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡ that she suggested it to a specialist and the diagnosis was made. "In retrospect IÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡m horrified we didnÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡t catch it sooner,Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡ said Zurcher, admitting that the idea she had in her head of autism before educating herself was the stereotypical "Rain ManÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡ image. Autism is not defined by a singular set of symptoms or characteristics; instead thereÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡s a spectrum Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡ from mild to severe Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡ of disorders. Autism spectral disorders are based on neurological disconnections that cause developmental disabilities in those diagnosed with the disorder. Some canÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡t speak, or have other severe physical and mental limitations, while many on the mild end of the spectrum can even go through life undiagnosed. The Centers for Disease Control recently put the number of 8-year-olds diagnosed with autism at 1 in every 110 children in the U.S. ThatÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡s up from a 2007 estimate of 1 in 150, and way up from the 1 in 2,000 medical experts believed there were earlier this decade. Medical experts have no explanation for this dramatic rise nor do they know what causes autism. They also donÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡t seem to know much about how an autistic person experiences life. Emma is in the middle of the autism spectrum, said Zurcher. She doesn't speak much Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡ except sometimes to answer simple questions and express simple desires Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡ but loves to sing. She also tries to communicate with series of sounds that are not understandable to her parents. "Does she hear like we hear? I have no idea," said Zurcher, expressing the wish to be in her daughterÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡s head to understand how she thinks and communicates. Emma goes to special school for autistic kids in New York City, and Zurcher said they've tried a number of therapies over the years Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡ "some mainstream and some not." One thing that seems to have helped Emma a lot is skiing. This week, sheÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡s out on the slopes daily with a specially trained volunteer from Challenge Aspen, who skis with her whenever the family is in town in the winter. And besides skiing, Emma loves to swim. SheÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡ll spend two to three hours at the ARC constantly in motion after a full day on the slopes. She seems to do really well out here,Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡ said Zurcher. Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡Her teachers always say when she comes back for school, 'Wow, what did you guys do?' Because thereÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡s such a big uptick in her language."

Zurcher said she'd like to get a brain scan of Emma after a day doing the kind of physical activity she gets in Aspen, to help determine why itÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡s so helpful. Without any medical knowledge to back it up, Zurcher believes Emma has different sensory needs than non-autistic children, and without regular physical stimulation, "itÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡s like thereÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡s tremendous static in her mind. Without the physical, sheÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡s not able to attend."

Zurcher is grateful that Aspen has programs such as Challenge Aspen, which has a full team of volunteers trained to work one-on-one with autistic children.

"It's such an amazing thing to give to families," she said.

The family spends three to four months a year in Aspen Ôø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡ Emma is the great-granddaughter of modern Aspen founders Walter and Elizabeth Paepcke, so the family has deep roots and many friends here. But while theyÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡re tempted to stay longer each time, especially for the benefit Emma gets from the outdoor activity, New York City has another set of benefits Emma canÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡t get in Aspen, such as her autism school and some of the top doctors and scientists in the country.

And New York is where the family first embarked on the path that will lead them to Costa Rica next month. They have been working with a group of neuroscientists at New York UniversityÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡s medical school who are in turn recommending about 30-40 autistic children to get stem cell treatment at the Institute for Cellular Medicine in San Juan, Costa Rica.

Zurcher said she's heard from the neuroscientists that kids who have been treated with the stem cells have had some pretty profound changes. And while she's not banking on the procedure to cure Emma of autism, "we feel we have to at least try."

"We are really on the frontier," said Zurcher, referring to the relative newness of autism treatment and knowledge. "We're pioneers heading out West and we have no idea where itÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡s going or how itÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡s going to end."

Emma's first treatment will begin on March 15, and there are a series of steps before the treatment wraps up on March 20. The family is looking at doing six treatments over the course of two years.

Including travel and expenses, Zurcher estimates the cost of each treatment to be about $25,000. So sheÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡s hoping that by sharing the jewelry-making talent that was inspired by her experience with EmmaÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡s autism, it could in part fund a treatment that might help her daughter get well.

At the encouragement of her husband, and after she had stopped working to care for Emma full time, Zurcher took a jewelry-making class and quickly realized she had both passion and talent for it. She hadn't realized how much mental energy she had been focusing on EmmaÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡s treatment and care, and how it had begun to negatively affect her. Working with jewelry, she said, is both meditative and focused, and gave her the outlet she had been missing.

And she's been recognized for her work. She won the 2009 Rising Star Award in Fine Jewelry from Fashion Group International and more recently the 2010 AGTA award in fine jewelry for business wear.

Although Zurcher's jewelry is generally high end, this weekend's trunk show is tailored to all price points, with several pairs of earrings under $120 and cuff links under $150. Zurcher works with 18K gold and gem stones; she says her margins are minimal on the work she's offering, which are intended to make good ValentineÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡s gifts. ZurcherÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡s latest collection, with the economic downturn in mind, can be bought as basic pieces with several add-on options, including fine gemstones, that can be transferred to other pieces. On the other end, a smaller number of higher-end pieces will be available.

Galerie DeVore is donating the space for the three-day trunk show. lutz@aspendailynews.com

What: Jewelry trunk show, pieces by Ariane Zurcher Where: Galerie DeVore, 520 E. Durant Ave. (next to Café Ink), Aspen When: Thursday, Feb. 11, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, Feb. 12-13, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Why: Show is dedicated to Emma Zurcher-Long, ZurcherÔø‡Ôø‡Ôø‡s autistic daughter, and all proceeds benefit her stem cell treatment at the Institute for Cellular Medicine in San Juan, Costa Rica.