Romancing the Stone

Jewelry designer Nicholas Varney takes his father's love of color to earthy Deco depths with semiprecious agate.

- Nicholas Varney

I WAS SMITTEN AT 11 YEARS OLD. My family was on a ski vacation in Switzerland, and my father took me to a jewelry store to shop for a ring for my mother. He always had an eye for glamour, color, and nostalgia-as president of Dorothy Draper & Company for more than 50 years, Carleton Varney's signature was that romantic element. But seeing my mother's delight when opening the ring, the loving sense it engendered between my parents, was an explosive, powerful feeling for me. This, with the excitement of skiing and probably too much Swiss chocolate, made the memory transformative. And it's what I've aimed for since-to recreate that atomic feeling of presenting a little gem to someone you love. That's the drug for me. Jewelry is simply my language. I believe it was Gustav Mahler who said if a composer could say what he wanted to say in words, he'd never write music.