Beth Millner Jewelry in Marquette has the founding artist’s name, but has evolved into an eight-person team supporting the designing process. We asked Beth about the evolution and about her nature-inspired work. The shop is at 521 W. Washington St. or connect online at bethmillner.com.
LSM: Are you from Marquette? If not, what drew you here?
BM: I’m originally from Marinette, Wisconsin. What drew me here was attending Northern Michigan University. I had never really been here. Marinette is only a few hours away, so I came to visit some friends and check out the university and I was just hooked. The town is beautiful, it’s very artsy. There are little coffee shops, and the shoreline and the terrain are just very different from where I grew up in Wisconsin. While I’m not from here, I have lived here for almost 20 years, so I feel like this is my home now.
LSM: How did you become involved in creating your art and what inspires you?
BM: My artwork is inspired by this area. When I was attending school at Northern, we did a lot of work in the art program to understand what our work is about and make meaningful pieces of artwork. I was inspired by the natural area and how prominent the changing seasons are, and I really like all the wildlife. My work has spawned off of the Senior Show body of work that I did while I was in school and expanded further and further to be jewelry about this place.
LSM: What materials do you use and do you draw out the jewelry designs before you create them?
BM: We strive to be as eco-friendly and sustainable as possible, so we use recycled metals and a lot of ethically sourced stones. For our Upper Peninsula jewelry, we use recycled copper from the White Pine Mine in Ontonagon, and we love to use local Great Lakes stones. Some of the Lake Superior agates I find myself here in Marquette. Sometimes I draw the designs, other times I lay them out digitally, or other times I just start right in the middle. I always used to need the design and to lay out the template beforehand, but I’ve been doing more work where I sit down with the materials and I just make the pieces. But often times there’s a sketch that starts it or a photograph I’ve taken that I’m inspired by.
LSM: Tell us a little about the process, especially with the new “northern lights” designs.
BM: The Northern Lights pieces have been really popular, and I’m fortunate enough to have a longterm studio manager, Nina, who designs as well. She came up with the concept for these, and we bounced back and forth until we kind of got the perfect mix. Those pieces are bezel-set labradorite stones. The labradorites are really beautiful and flash different colors. The back part is hand-sawn with a jewelers saw, and we set each stone individually.
LSM: How is the work done among your creative team?
BM: Nina and I often collaborate on designs, and I will get input from other staff members to see if they like an idea or if they have ideas, and then we bring that into a prototype. If it’s a production design where we’re making more than one, we’ll make one of each of the designs we’re thinking of making, and we often make molds and do lost-wax casting to get multiples. Then we finish the pieces, and they go to the office for photography, short videos, product listings and social media posts. We have a long list of things that we do every time we put new products out into the world. We have some batches that come out really fast, but some of our bigger seasonal launches take about four months from the idea to getting it on the shelf.
LSM: What’s the most memorable reaction you’ve gotten about your work?
BM: Many years ago I had someone get a tattoo of one of my trees on their body because they loved the pendant so much. So they had the actual piece tattooed on them. That was a pretty amazing reaction.
LSM: When you’re not creating, what do you like to do?
BM: I like to go on hikes in the woods, paddleboard on the Tourist Park basin, and I really like my houseplants and garden as well. I generally spend my time in or around the things that inspire the jewelry even in my free time.
LSM: If you could tell visitors just one thing about Marquette, what might it be?
BM: Marquette is probably one of the most fun places to go on vacation. We have the beauty and nature, but also the things you might want out of a city vacation like good restaurants, breweries, coffee shops and unique downtown stores. And there’s quite a few that have handmade items as well. That’s my ideal vacation – to have all of those things, but not the runaround of driving in a large city.
LSM: Where can people see or purchase your artwork?
BM: My jewelry designs are available on our website, bethmillner.com, or you can come to our storefront in Marquette. There’s also a list of a few retailers on our website that sell our work, including the Lake Superior Magazine gift shop. n