Born under the creative sign of Libra in Los Angeles, California, Carolyn Tyler studied Anthropology and Archaeology at UC Santa Barbara, just up the coast from LA. She spent her post-university years running an award-winning boutique media agency, C.A.T. Design Advertising. To support her travel addiction, she opened an Indonesian Imports shop to sell the clothing, jewelry, and artifacts sourced from her frequent travels in Bali from 1989-1993.

After relocating, she turned her creative pursuits to her luxury jewelry brand, architecture, and garden design and built her first home in Bali, Villa Pelangi, based on the chakra system. The eclectic property was featured in Architectural Digest, HGTV, Arts & Antiques, and Islands Magazine. In 2026 Carolyn finished her largest crowning achievement: Lumina Wellness Sanctuary—an artistic and intimate “salon-style” healing retreat on riverside terraces overlooking the sacred Wos River, in Ubud, Bali. Carolyn quips that it’s "an oversized piece of jewelry functioning as a Soul Temple for Creatives looking to do a re-set”.

From her new self-designed home nearby, she continues to envision and sketch jeweled creations from whimsical to royal. With the help of her loyal team of master craftsmen, she performs the alchemy of turning her dreams, literally, into gold.

For Carolyn Tyler, collecting gemstones and unusual artifacts is an inspiring passion. Since 1991, she has scoured global gem trade shows from Tucson to Thailand, Basel to Bangkok for rare and unusual materials (both mineral and organic), and has amassed an impressive treasure trove of objects to kindle her creations. Gem traders and miners from around the world alert her when something special comes their way.

Carolyn favors using "phenomenal" gems (those that possess special qualities of light reflection and refraction) like opal, which is unique in the mineral kingdom due to its “play of color”, caused by its amorphous structure made up of spheres of silica. She also is partial to the adularescence of moonstone and its cousin, labradorite (both forms of feldspar, along with sunstone), which have a fascinating “glow” due to their molecular structure. 

An early childhood immersion in the archaeology section of the LA Museum sparked her fascination with ancient artifacts and coins, antique beads, and fossils like colorful Canadian Ammolite, trilobites, and opalized sea shells . The iridescent luster of Tahitian and South Sea pearls also appears prominently in many of her one-of-a-kind creations.

Carolyn utilizes the prodigious talents of local traditional craftsmen—gold and silver smiths, gem cutters, leather workers, and fossilized ivory and bone carvers—who have plied their respective crafts for decades, if not hundreds of years. Over many generations, they have honed their skills and developed the distinctive decorative techniques which are part of Indonesian National Heritage. The masterworks produced by these incredibly gifted artisans are foundational to Carolyn’s unique jewelry style. 

One of the proudest moments in Carolyn’s life is when she was honored by her alma mater GIA (the Gem Institute of America) shortly after founding Carolyn Tyler Precious Jewels. Her two favorite instructors invited her to give a keynote address to the graduating class of ‘97, and the sketching teacher, Robert Ahrens asked her to allow the students to inspect the extremely fine granulation on her now-famous “Ramses” ring. Ahrens told the assembly “This is the finest granulation work since the Etruscans perfected the technique 3,000 years ago”. Carolyn explained that the Balinese artisans enter into a trancelike state during the process, which takes extraordinary dexterity and timing. As they were leaving, the Gem ID teacher informed Carolyn that Robert Ahrens had paid her the highest compliment, since he had been the Chief of Global Design for Van Cleef and Arpels for 27 years before “retiring” to teach at GIA.

Carolyn favors using "phenomenal" gems (those that possess special qualities of light reflection and refraction) like opal, which is unique in the mineral kingdom due to its “play of color”, caused by its amorphous structure made up of spheres of silica. She also is partial to the adularescence of moonstone and its cousin, labradorite (both forms of feldspar, along with sunstone), which have a fascinating “glow” due to their molecular structure.