Fashion
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Jane Seymour tells story behind 'Open Heart'
By Teresa Novellino
March 09, 2009
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| Actress, painter, philanthropist and jewelry designer Jane Seymour. |
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New York--Award-winning actress Jane Seymour might be best known as the star of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, but off-screen, getting into painting, philanthropy and now jewelry design have proved to be the best medicine.
From the swirly "open heart" designs featured in the jewelry collection itself to the tie-ins between the designs and her watercolor paintings and charity work, Seymour said she has been deeply involved in Kay Jewelers' popular "Open Hearts by Jane Seymour" collection.
She spoke on Friday at the Women's Jewelry Association's (WJA) 6th Annual "Women in the Know" conference, held at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, and earned a standing ovation for a speech that included a mix of inspiring anecdotes from her personal and professional life.
A longtime jewelry lover, Seymour said she understands very well how special pieces of jewelry carry emotional and personal history, and are more than the sum of their parts.
"I think for people who own jewelry, it's not just about the design, the precious metals or the diamonds," she said. "It's the pieces that your mother wore...the pieces that you bought for yourself when you were feeling down."
Seymour's collection for Kay Jewelers debuted last spring. She formed a partnership with Sterling Jewelers, the parent company of Kay, after a chance meeting at a dinner where a Sterling executive asked her about a necklace that she was wearing. That necklace was created for her by designer Jack Kelege and was based upon Seymour's own sketch.
After the meeting, Seymour was soon sketching pieces for what would become her "Open Hearts" collection on napkins and pieces of paper, flying to the jewelry company's headquarters in Ohio to meet with corporate executives and the product team, and offering up marketing strategies for the line.
The theme of the "Open Hearts" collection came about because of another passion of hers: painting, which she became passionate about after a painful divorce 18 years ago. Whenever Seymour painted watercolor versions of hearts, she always left a space in them, so that they were open, rather than closed.
"If your heart has been broken, you close off your heart," she said. "You can't get rid of the past and let love in."
Painting helped heal her during a difficult time, and it was shortly after she took it up that she was offered the starring role on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. She continued with her watercolor paintings, and even the crew took to wearing her paintings as T-shirts. Now she actually holds art exhibits around the country.
As for her jewelry venture, Seymour said she was surprised that the Sterling team was able to turn her ideas into actual prototypes within three weeks time.
"They took all of my designs and turned them into iconic pieces," said Seymour, who wore her own diamond necklace and earrings with a red dress at the WJA event.
These days, she is on the phone with Sterling several times a day discussing the collection, which will expand to include a "peace, love and open heart" motif and a piece for the upcoming Olympics based upon the theme: "Compete with an open heart."
In addition to acting, Seymour is a painter, an author and a philanthropist, who has been active in a range of causes from child abuse prevention to heart disease awareness for women.
One of the biggest inspirations behind her artwork, charitable efforts and jewelry was her own mother, Mieke Frankenberg, Seymour said. Frankenberg, a native of Holland, was imprisoned in a Japanese concentration camp when she was living in Indonesia during World War II.
During her imprisonment, Frankenberg found an old stove and managed to cook and eat anything she could find to survive, including flies and bugs. She also nursed the sick and dying with no medicine, using only her experience as a Red Cross volunteer. The experience left her with a charitable mindset and a can-do attitude that she passed on to her daughter.
"She said, 'Darling, when times get tough, go out and help someone else,'" Seymour said. "'By helping someone else, it will help you.'"
Her mother died in October 2007 at the age of 92, after suffering a debilitating stroke that left her able to understand others but unable to speak.
When Seymour was offered a spot on the ABC series Dancing with the Stars two years ago, she was skeptical about it because she had an old injury that had curtailed her study of dance decades earlier. But when she told her mother about the opportunity, Frankenberg spoke for the first time in nine months: "Yes" she told her daughter. So Seymour went on the show, surprising herself at how well she was able to perform by working at it.
"It was grueling, but it was an extraordinary and amazing experience," Seymour said. "I was amazed that at 57, I could do this...I could even do the splits."
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