Designer Meagan Howard learned the craft of jewelry making from her grandfather, John, a retired contractor who soldered huge gold chains, diamond-nugget rings, and custom pieces. "He was very much a long-haired, Willie Nelson biker type," she says. "His nickname was Silver Fox, and he called his studio Foxes Den. The studio was set up in Whitehorse, then he would leave on his bike for months at a time. He rode through Africa, North and South America, selling his jewelry in bars or doing trades. He was quite a character."
Howard saw jewelry as a way to focus on her primary interests of art and design. After spending a year in her grandfather's studio, she went on to attend the Jewelry, Art and Design Program at VCC. She graduated in 2006, and launched Sleep Standing Up in 2009. Her first collection included a 'Silver Fox' ring.
Though jewelry primarily serves as aesthetic adornment, Howard's work is inspired by function. "I'm attracted to cultures and times when people wore things for a reason, " she says, "Like trophies of what they had hunted, or having a blade strapped on you. " Her first collection was a modernist take on such weaponry, and her second looked to Vikings to expand upon this idea, creating androgynous pieces out of twisted and distressed metal.
"Jewelry's purpose is special to each person, " she says. "For me, I feel a sense of power when I have it all on. A lot of the jewelry I wear was made by my grandfather, so it's pretty sentimental."
Sleep Standing Up has been featured in i-D, Zink, Hobo and The Lab Magazines, and is currently stocked at Obakki, Gravity Pope Tailored Goods, and Nomad.
