Antique Ethnic Jewelry with a Modern Edge
Angela Lovett Designs are one-of-a-kind handmade beaded jewelry pieces created with antique, ancient and vintage silver, brass and gold beads, pendants and other elements combined with precious and semi-precious gemstones to create contemporary and modern objects of adornment. Each unique piece of jewelry has a history and story – beads that have travelled across time and all areas of the world. The modern tribal and ethnic jewelry designs are created for the woman who is proud of her individuality, values authenticity and revels in her own unique sense of style.
The unique jewelry designs will appeal to many tastes, and include long necklaces, pendant necklaces, multi-strand necklaces, amulet necklaces and more. Each custom necklace is handcrafted using authentic antique and vintage ethnic and tribal silver and African tribal beads along with precious and semi-precious gemstones and Swarovski crystals.
With a background in graphic design and prepress, newspaper design and production, clothing design and web design, creative pursuits have played a major role throughout my life. A love for travel and a lifelong fascination for old tribal jewelry led to a passion for designing one-of-a-kind contemporary jewelry pieces that combine antique ethnic beads and pendants with modern gemstones and elements.
Angela Lovett | Jewelry Designer
Inspirations
My inspirations come from each unique antique pendant, amulet or bead and my intention is to create a design that is modern and appealing to today’s aesthetics while still honoring the history and reverence of each antique jewelry element that is featured in the finished piece. Each unique piece of jewelry has a history and story – beads that have travelled across time and all areas of the world.
Just as inspirational are the stories and histories behind each bead or component. Who wore these beads? What role did they play in a woman’s life? Was it a show of status or wealth or marriage? How far has it travelled? As I work with each item, it’s intriguing to imagine all the women from different cultures and how they wore these beads and pieces of jewelry.
The moment I complete each new design, I feel the energy and connection to those women who lived and adorned themselves with these pieces before my time, and it is immensely gratifying for me to gift the new owner with a continuing connection to the woman who wore the jewelry in a different time and place.
I’ve always been inspired by color and this is another important inspiration for each necklace. When selecting precious and semi-precious gemstones, I look for intense and unusual colorations and quality of hues in each particular stone. I seek out unusual cuts and my favorite gemstones are one-of-a-kind or vintage hand-cut and hand-faceted jewels.
Bead shopping in Marrakech
The Creative Process
Of course it all starts with the beads – thousands of glorious tribal and ethnic silver, precious metal and gemstone beads! Sometimes a design speaks to me right away, other times I’ll play with a strand of beads or a pendant for days or weeks or months before the finished design is conceived.
Bead supplies come in from around the world, and in the case of African trade beads many still have the dust and dirt from African deserts. I love unwrapping the packing materials and being able to smell the African air and dust on them. Beads are then unstrung, gently cleaned and rinsed, and then catalogued.
About the Beads
As most of the beads used are antique, vintage, old and have travelled thru time and continents, imperfections are normal and part of the charm!
