Our Designers

Helen Chantler is the Creative Director and Lead Designer at Reflective Images Jewelry. She was born in England and spent her adolescent years in South East Asia. Throughout her life, she has traveled over much of the world in her quest to experience and understand rich cultures that celebrate the human journey. She has spent over twenty-five years developing her own style. She works sculpturally, cutting out tiny pieces of gold and silver, which she overlays. Often she creates base relief images which are contemporary interpretations of ancient designs.

Helen is prolific and has a broad range, from wolves and ravens to exquisite two tone bracelets to nature inspired wedding rings. It is through her jewelry and wedding rings align talismanic meaning with ethical sourcing and artisanal design that Helen expresses her concerned for the environment and the essential beauty of traditional cultures. For Helen, jewelry will always be more than just fashion. It can help awaken us to beauty and connection.

Lauren Inoue is Reflective Jewelry’s newest employee, joining our team in the summer of 2018. She is a metalsmith, jewelry designer, graphic designer, and photographer. She uses her computer and graphic design skills to make our custom designs come to life.

Born in Santa Fe, she moved to the East Coast in 2014 to attend the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) jewelry program. Lauren has been a jeweler since 2011, focusing on metal fabrication and stone setting. She is inspired by nature and the beautiful stones produced by the Earth. She also learned many things about contemporary jewelry and 3D jewelry design from her studies at RISD.

Gloria Vigil was born into a family of musicians and artists in Santa Fe. As a child she was particularly fascinated by the relationship between fire and metal, and would spend hours watching her uncle weld. In high school she had the opportunity to take a few jewelry courses, and once she got her hands on silver, gold and gems, she knew what she wanted to do in life.

She apprenticed with well-established Santa Fe designers, learning the traditional southwestern style jewelry fabrication techniques, including fine lapidary. These traditional handwork techniques, passed down from the Spanish Conquistadors, from whom Gloria traces her own lineage. Gloria has created, designed and worked at Reflective Images since 1999.

Her work tends to be bold and definitive, whilst maintaining graceful form, as with her Corazon Engagement Ring. Gloria draws her inspiration from songs, books, pictures and landscapes and feels that making and designing pieces is her personal way to stay in balance. She has also been juried into Santa Fe’s famous Spanish Market as a jewelry designer.

Michelle Talley joined Reflective Images in the summer of 2009. She went to art school and trained as a jeweler, which she has been all her life. Over the years, she has perfected hand fabrication, stone setting and also wax carving. She has several pieces in our Skull Collection. With over twenty years of fine jewelry design and bench experience, Michelle is an excellent technical goldsmith, as shown here with her in her rose and yellow gold Flow Wedding Ring with diamonds. She takes the lead on many of our custom designs. 

As a designer, Michelle’s work tends toward the timeless and classic, yet she is also eclectic. She brings her love of the jewelry making process and her passion for stones and fuses them into her designs. Her pieces will look as good in twenty years as they do today. Michelle grew up in Santa Fe, and enjoys light banter and witty repartee'. She also loves spending time with her family.