Independent Starkville jewelers work together to make unique art
A Starkville couple creates jewelry for their independent small business Xover0, with one piece featured on the Netflix movie "Uglies."
STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – Walking into the workshop of Duane McLemore, AIA, and Katherine Voorhies, it is clear that their creative process is complex.
Advanced fabrication equipment and materials fill the small space, but everything in this workshop is essential for the couple to produce jewelry for their company Xover0.
McLemore described how their jewelry is unique.
“To do stuff that nobody else is doing, to put things into the world that we know is kind of harder to put into the world than what your typical mass producer would do, we like the challenge,” McLemore said.
Voorhies said perfecting a piece is difficult.
“It’s a battle to get things to where you want them before you can release them,” Voorhies said. “But I think it’s just well worth it.”
McLemore said the creative process almost never ends.
“Getting it out there in the world,” McLemore said. “Talking to customers and saying send us back: How do you wear this? What does this piece mean to you? The long tail, so to speak, of the creative process is really almost infinite.”
Voorhies’ background as a fashion designer, and McLemore’s as an architect, provide a wide set of skills important to the creation of their jewelry.
Voorhies described the process of creation.
“The design process is really intense,” Voorhies said. “Prototyping, figuring out like how we’re actually going to do the balancing act of getting it made, which that in itself is very challenging and tricky. There’s a lot of failure on the on the road to success.”
McLemore said working being independent has its’ own set of challenges.
“Every single step requires a new set of knowledge,” McLemore said. “There’s no one else, there’s no cavalry coming and you just have to figure it out.”
The business, and life partners, said there is nothing like being creative with their significant other.
McLemore said having a dialog during a creative process is amazing.
“We’re able to share dialog on design and on creation that is really amazing,” McLemore said.
Voorhies said working with your partner is rewarding.
“It’s very rewarding,” Voorhies said. “It can be frustrating, but I think we have a good relationship and keep an open communication and open dialog.”
McLemore said sometimes they have to be critical of each other when working together.
“And sometimes, be critical with each other and be frank about things that you want to see out of a piece or out of a process,” McLemore said. “And you do that and you just get through it and you move on. It’s a real test of a relationship. But if you can do it, there’s there’s nothing like it in the world.”
One of the pieces of jewelry from Xover0, the Geoheart pendant, was featured as a plot device in the Netflix movie “Uglies”.
