Austin Jeweler Cristen René Looks to Nature, Not Trends, for Her Largest Collection Yet

For Austin-based jeweler Cristen René, inspiration comes from many places. Some comes from her family’s ties to the Cherokee people in North Carolina, some comes from her passion for the outdoors and some comes from guided meditation sessions in Ojai Valley. But one place it never comes from is trend cycles. 

When René creates, she creates from the heart — a process that often involves “sequestering herself away,” maybe at a campsite in Pedernales Falls State Park or her “little nook” in her backyard, where designs arise in her mind and eventually become reality. “I’ve been doing this forever,” she says, speaking of her craft, which first began as a childhood hobby and later became her career. “I’ve never really designed on trend or to go with what’s happening in the world.”

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Cristen René’s latest collection, “Architect of the Wild” (Photo courtesy of Cristen René)

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(Photo courtesy of Cristen René)

Value beyond a fashion statement

René’s most recent collection, “Architect of the Wild,” features a unique harmony of organic shapes inspired by her love for nature and the sharp geometry of Art Deco. “I love things that typically may not make sense coming together in a really beautiful, surprising way,” she says. As a result, René finds similarities among the women who are drawn to her designs. “The people that really get it, get it. Women who are really confident and like dressing in a way that feels authentic to them are attracted to my work.”

And yet, René hopes that, for the women who choose to wear her pieces, her jewelry becomes more than a bold fashion statement. Every design, she says, is imbued with its own symbolism meant to resonate with the person wearing it. For instance, one piece from a past collection, titled “Acceptance,” illustrates the importance of loving oneself through times when it feels more difficult. Wearing the piece, René says, is “a reminder of an intention or a value that you want to carry with you.”

Her most recent collection, which, with about 35 designs, is her largest one yet, feels like “a coming together,” she says. Once a merchandising undergraduate at the University of Texas at Austin who apprenticed with an artist she met at a Renaissance art market, and now a mother of four with a nearly 25-year history working alongside the Austin creative community, René has taken on quite an evolution — not just as an artist, but a person. Her new collection reflects and celebrates that. 

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(Photo courtesy of Cristen René)

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(Photo courtesy of Cristen René)

An exciting new phase

On Nov. 7, René will host the official launch of her collection at St. John Studios for “an Austin night of art, adornment, music and culture,” featuring painter Morgan McVay. “The event is really focused on women, the different phases of life that we go through, supporting each other through it and seeing that symbolism within the art,” she says. 

Recently, René joined a celebration of women in which all attendees wore pieces from her collection, and as they sat around the table at dinner, adorned with the designs that had once been sketches in René’s studio, it finally hit her that what she had spent nearly a year perfecting would soon be released into the world. “I’m able to bring so much of what I’ve learned throughout the last 25 years, through travels, jewelry design and just life, into this collection,” she says. “So for me, it feels very rich.”

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