Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist – September 2019

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ewelry doesn’t get more

authentically ancient than

Loren Nicole’s. That’s the lure

as well as the challenge. Loren

is a trained archaeologist, a scholar

of antiquities who stumbled into

jewelry-making while researching

ancient metalwork.

After getting her degree in

anthropology, specializing in

Pre-Columbian archaeology, she

worked as an intern at the American

Museum of Natural History in New

York for a couple years. She began

studying ancient jewelry-making

techniques as a way to understand

the antiquities she was dealing

with. “I was studying ancient

metalworking for practical reasons,

just trying to fi gure out fusing from

soldering, why they would attach

things a certain way,” she says.

She learned to make jewelry using

the same tools the ancients used —

fi les, hammers, fl ame — and never

really got beyond that.

Strong Start, Clean

Finish

She introduced her handmade high-

karat gold revival-style jewels at the

Jewelers of America show in New

York in 2016 and, to her surprise,

found a niche immediately. Entering

“The Big Pitch” at that show brought

her to the attention of the organiz-

ers who encouraged her to apply for

the emerging designer section of

the Couture Show in Vegas, run by

the same company.

I saw her jewelry at both shows

that year. There wasn’t much then

but it stood out: high-karat gold

chains, colorful cabs mounted in

revival-style charms, a polished

open cuff bracelet carved as a

polished cylinder from clear quartz

and capped with textured gold. Her

jewelry had the patina, basic shapes,

and rich color of ancient gold but

the feel of something more contem-

porary. It reminded me a bit of the

jewelry you fi nd in antiquity auctions

labeled “ancient ringstone in modern

setting.”

I began following her progress on-

line, looking for her booth at shows.

By last year’s Vegas show, she had a

range of work reminiscent of a few

diff erent ancient cultures, yet always

with that clean fi nish, something

unique that tied it all together.

“I always make it super clear

that I’m not making replicas,” she

says. “My goal is to capture the

spirit of whatever civilization I’m

representing.”

Ancient

Reinvented

Loren Nicole turned a study of antiquity into a popular

jewelry line By Cathleen McCarthyeen

Amulet Ring

Tawaret, Goddess of Mothers

and Children

22K yellow gold, aquamarine,

Paraíba tourmaline

In the Nile

22K yellow gold, sapphire,

moonstone

Hand-raised chasing and

repoussé cuff

48 LAPIDARY JOURNAL JEWELRY ARTIST