ABOUT MARINA TYLER
One of my earliest memories is a tiny brooch belonging to a friend in kindergarten — red glass set in worn metal. It wasn't fine jewelry. To me, it was treasure. I remember the density of it in my hand, and that a small object could hold that much attention.
I was born in Kazakhstan, in a house where geology and drawing were kept on the same table. Both were drawing until the material got involved. A drawing forgives. Rock and metal do not.
The forms I make still look like what was on that table. A section through rock. A cavity with layers radiating out from it.
After the Gemological Institute of America I started RyKier to work in that space — to build forms with an artist's eye and hold them to an engineer's tolerances.
THE NAME
RyKier combines the names of my sons, Ryan and Kieran. It keeps the work personal — my name is on it, and so is theirs.
THE SURFACE IS THE FORM
The relief is not applied to the piece — it is the piece.
That is the part I will not hand off. Casting can be done by someone else. Where the wave fades, how deep the recess goes, which edge stays polished — that is decided before anything is cast, and it is the same across everything I make. It is what makes a piece mine, not a logo on the back.
From there the files go to our foundry in Bangkok, where the piece is cast, the stones are set by hand, and the recesses are oxidized to the depth I specify. One foundry, the same people each time — the surface only survives if the same hands finish it
THE PROCESS: DIGITAL MIND, HUMAN HAND
Every piece begins as a digital sculpture I build in Pittsburgh. Working this way lets me shape contour, balance and movement before the form is ever cast in metal. Most forms are rebuilt several times before one of them leaves the screen — what arrives at the foundry is already decided down to the depth of each recess.