Deirdre has a lifelong curiosity about how things work and an obsession with improving any objects’ functionality. She never tires of tinkering with the smallest details in her pursuit of peak performance, whether in her classic car collection or the metallic motorcycle she’s famously seen riding throughout the streets of Manhattan. She applies this same meticulousness to her jewelry designs, resolute in her determination to achieve perfection in both form and function.

Making things and sketching pictures of jewelry for as long as she can remember, Deirdre’s first job in jewelry was filing sprues and shaping rings in the shop of a retail store, tasks she refuses to do to this day.

Earning a degree in economics and fine art, following college she had a brief stint in an investment firm before her natural acumen for computers and engineering led her to take a job at an auction house, re-wiring their infrastructure and setting up their computer systems.

She stayed on at the auction house cataloguing items of enduring beauty and eventually serving as its live auctioneer, an experience she credits with giving her insight into how people tick, helping her develop a greater sense of confidence and exposing her to a level of jewelry she had never seen before.

She began spending her evenings, weekends and the extended work breaks her boss granted her making jewelry, learning through trial and error how to reconcile her aesthetic vision with flawless, wearable construction. Finally, in 1985, she opened her Tribeca atelier.

Deirdre’s profound understanding of both the physical and metaphysical properties of the materials with which she works, coupled with her knowledge of human behavior, drives the direction of her designs. Referring to herself as a “builder,” she manipulates the blocks of her medium to their greatest advantage, working in commune with platinum or gold to push each to the boundaries of its capabilities and allowing each to serve their unique purpose.

Looking at her jewelry as an expression of individuality, many of the pieces in her Featherstone Design collection are designed to be convertible, like earrings that seamlessly transform from varying length drops to button to pendant. By creating work that can transition with the needs and whims of her collectors, Deirdre encourages them to “live their jewelry.”

Hand-selecting each of the gemstones she incorporates into her designs for their nuances in color and saturation, she is perpetually cognizant of how they will live within their frames and how they will be reflected on the human form.

After decades of creating jewelry for her ardent and loyal collectors, Deirdre remains overjoyed that she’s able to do what she does for a living.

She loves working one-on-one with her clients, collaborating with them to bolster, not overpower, their distinctive qualities, ensuring her pieces feel like a natural extension of their personalities. Designed to complement, engineered to be worn, Deirdre doesn’t create jewelry for special occasions, in her pieces, her clients are the special occasion.