BoomerGirl Diary

Fort Worth, Texas — It's only fitting that I met jewelry designer Tiana Wages in the sun-drenched lobby of the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth.

Her intricate 22-karat gold jewelry that she's brought along on her visit reflects an artistry that's not a bit out of place in the vaulted galleries of the Kimbell. And as a participant and supporter of the arts, this is a familiar place for the Dallas resident.

At 62, Wages has long intertwined her aesthetic visions. She was raised in Belgrade, capital of the former Yugoslavia, today Serbia, and was introduced early on to a multicultural world thanks to summers spent in Italy and Paris. Even today, she's able to speak six languages.

One of her early inspirations was a long-dead ancestor, Prince Bojidar Karadjordjeviæ, who had worked with the legendary French art deco glass and jewelry designer Rene Lalique. And in her early 20s, Wages lived in Madrid, where she started making jewelry as a hobby.

"There really was no school, but I found an amazing mentor in Amador Braojos, a well-known sculptor and cutting-edge jewelry maker," she says.

Wages continued to perfect her craft even as marriage brought her to the States.

She had often traveled to Dallas on business or with her husband, and the friendly charm of the booming Texas city soon drew her in.

Even after a divorce in the early '80s, Wages felt the area "was fertile ground for a jewelry designer. Everyone was very receptive and encouraging."

Buoyed by her newfound freedom, Wages began to experiment with her designs. "Men design jewelry with a different thought process of how it will look on a woman," Wages says.

Her work was validated in 1999 when she won a De Beers design contest and helped the diamond giant kick-start the right-hand ring phenomenon promoted so heavily by the diamond industry.

Today, Wages works almost exclusively in 22-karat gold, a richly colored metal that complements the gemstones and pearls in her designs.

She still loves diamonds, and says "visiting India gave me a new appreciation for diamonds with all their different cuts and that country's tremendous sense of color and texture."

But she also counts tourmalines, with their vast assortment of colors, as her favorite.

Wages put her digital camera through its paces in India, taking thousands of photographs of things that inspire her - architectural details, stonework and masonry, tile work.

"I want to translate things that inspire me into contemporary pieces that work with each other," she says. "Many pieces are interchangeable, creating a jewelry wardrobe."

Indeed, with the necklaces and earrings, one can add or subtract parts to create new looks.

Wages keeps a studio at her Dallas home in a separate building, working two days a week on her jewelry design. Her background and fluency with languages have allowed her to literally mine the world for the best raw materials she can find, and she travels for inspiration as well as pleasure.

At home in Texas, she also immerses herself in the local art communities and spends time with friends, soaking up the city's culture. She's even purchased property, hoping one day to create a mixed-use development and possibly a home for herself.

She has painted off and on over the years, and is intrigued by photography, the computer and all the possibilities. "I'd also love to do sculpture. I like to dabble in a lot of everything," she says.

"Jewelry is a combination of movement, of texture and of combining art with fashion. It's the best of all worlds."