MEET THE DESIGNER: ORLY GENGER BY JACLYN MAYER

In 2008, Jaclyn Mayer (right) got together with Orly Genger, who she had met years before at a gallery in Chelsea, to talk about a necklace. Orly, an installation artist who makes giant, knotted rope sculptures, needed something unique to wear to an upcoming show. And she wanted Jaclyn, a jewelry designer who was moving back to NYC after fashion school in London, to make it for her. As they caught up, Jaclyn began to play around with some of the raw materials lying on Orly’s floor. “She just started picking up rope, weaving chain through it, and all of a sudden, there was this delicate, little piece,” Orly says from that same whitewashed studio in Brooklyn where they had their first get-together. The creation, inspired by Orly’s sculptures, was a hit at the exhibit, and before they knew it, requests started to roll in. They never intended for it to turn into a business, but planned or not, they were onto something. Now in their sixth collection, the two keep pushing their go-to material forward: knotting, casting, and dip-dyeing it. Yes, they’ve sure gotten a lot out of a pile of rope sitting on a dusty cement floor in Brooklyn. —lydia woolever


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