Cooper Hewitt says...
Constance Abernathy was a trained architect. She graduated from the University of Michigan’s Architecture School. She researched systems architecture and experimental structures. In the 1950s, she moved to Paris, where she attended the Sorbonne and studied urban planning. Abernathy then worked as an architect all over world, including designing an extension for the offices of Pierre Dufeau and J. M. Lafon at Abidjan, Ivory Coast, a capitol for Mauritania, atomic plants at Pierre Latt in southern France and the Negev Desert. 1966 through 1971, Abernathy directed Buckminster Fuller’s office in New York and then founded a private architecture firm. In 1973, she joined a jewelry design studio, “Famous Ladies” Design Cooperative. She began exhibiting her jewelry pieces in 1977 all over the United States. From 1990 until her death, Abernathy custom-designed jewelry for individual clients and retail outlets.