Arizona Jewelry Artists

Boise's R. Grey wins national jewelry award

After 36 years in the business, Boise jewelry designer Robert Kaylor is an overnight sensation.

Two weeks ago, Kaylor, perhaps better known in Boise as R. Grey Kaylor, won the Mort Abelson New Designer of the Year Award at JA New York, one of the top jewelry industry shows in the world, for his RealSteel jewelry line.

“I was blown away,” Kaylor says. “I’d never been to New York before in my life and to have this happen was amazing.”

Kaylor is a tall, softspoken man, with kind eyes and a quick sense of humor. He and his wife Barbara own and operate the award-winning R. Grey Gallery, 415 S. 8th St., Boise, where they have specialized in jewelry by Kaylor and other designers such as Alex Sepkus, as well as art glass and furniture, since the 1980s.

So, he isn’t a newbie in the strictest sense. Kaylor, 57, builds on traditions of European jewelry fabrication techniques. He has years of experience working with precious metals and stones and has been designing jewelry with clean lines, hints of art deco and fine hand craftsmanship since the 1970s.

However, this award represents his breakthrough into the national jewelry market, and it’s a big one in his industry.

“This takes me to the next level,” Kaylor says.

It’s been a long journey to get here from his start in Flagstaff, Ariz., where he once worked in a grueling, dangerous job in a saw mill. “It made me want to further my career in anything else,” Kaylor says.

His next job on the grounds crew at Northern Arizona University came with cheap tuition, so he took night classes in business and art.

That’s when he discovered his love for jewelry at the Flagstaff Indian Market. There, he met a Navajo silversmith who took him on and taught him the basics.

Kaylor bought some basic equipment and started making trendy silver turquoise jewelry in the basement of his apartment building. Soon after, he quit his regular job and did jewelry full time until 1977, when the turquoise market bottomed out.

That’s when he decided to move — and through a random pick on a map — landed in Boise. Things clicked here quickly. He found a job at Hal Davis Jewelers learning to work with gold and then became a protegee of master jeweler John Poznanovich. In a few years, he had his own small shop in Old Boise where he repaired jewelry for mall retailers and sold his custom work on the side. He met his wife, Barbara, when he repaired some jewelry for her. They will celebrate 25 years together in October.

the Winner of 'New Designer of the Year' shares inspiration ...

NY–Designer Robert Grey Kaylor snagged the Mort Abelson New Designer of the Year Award at the JA New York Show last week with his REALSTEEL jewelry line, made up of blackened steel, diamonds and sapphires. Now, National Jeweler learns a little bit more about this emerging artist.

RGK

Robert Grey Kaylor

Kaylor’s blackened steel is crafted from antique keys, furniture nails and railroad date nails, discarded materials he searches for to create rings, bracelets and necklaces.

“This is unlike anything else out there, which is one of its greatest appeals,” he said.

Kaylor got his start in jewelry as a teenager when he requested lessons from a Navajo turquoise jewelry artist in Flagstaff, Ariz. He later took jewelry classes at Northern Arizona University and, afterward, became a goldsmith’s apprentice in Boise, Idaho, eventually transitioning to working repairs for local jewelry stores.

The designer finally opened his own small custom jewelry store in Boise, which has expanded within the last five years.

“A long time ago, I realized that it was essential to stay open to change,” he said. “Standing in one place for too long means stagnation.”

RGK

The spiral tsavorite garnet necklace is made with a steel antique furniture nail, sterling silver and 18-karat yellow gold ($3,975).

Kaylor’s inspiration for REALSTEEL was the result of a design contest he participated in years ago that aimed to showcase past decades. Searching antique shops, he came upon the date nails and steel keys and combined the recycled items with gold, sterling silver and precious stones.

Kaylor’s gallery showcases his own work, as well as the work of more than 100 other artists, whose crafts range from jewelry to furniture and art glass.

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