Bringing the Renaissance to life through beautiful period jewelry is my desire. The romance, color, passion and pageantry of the era are drawn upon and reflected in my designs. My beautiful, handcrafted
Renaissance jewelry & Medieval jewelry incorporates vintage & contemporary components into the designs. Most are inspired by jewelry seen in portraits between 1400 --1650 AD. Visit my
Gallery of actual Renaissance portraits to view jewelry styles by century. Notice that many Renaissance and Medieval jewelry styles were repeated over many years. Since Victorian jewelry had similar designs, many of my Renaissance jewelry pieces are also appropriate for that era.
Medieval jewelry and Renaissance Tudor jewelry covered a broad range of materials. Pearls in necklaces, brooches, earrings and collars of office were obviously the most popular jewelry component for both men and women. From early years when mainly cabochon stones were used, jewelers gradually began using cameos, simply faceted stones with table cut, opals, pearls of all sizes (usually round) and round or lightly faceted gemstone beads. Favored gemstones were rubies, sapphires, emeralds and diamonds. However, diamonds did not have the sparkle of today's multi-faceted stones. Chains were also popular for men and women. Some were worn to designate an office held by the wearer, or a station in society.
Though there is not much evidence, we can assume that Medieval jewelry and Renaissance jewelry for the lower classes was much simpler and made of easily found materials such as wood, shells, bone, seeds and roughly worked metal.
Medieval jewelry and Tudor jewelry styles have become ever more popular due to "The Tudors" series on television, the movies "Elizabeth", "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" and other period movies. It is worn by faire and festival participants, but also with contemporary clothing. My jewelry has appearsed in many stage productions and in several movies.
Photo by Richard Feldman.
A number of my Renaissance jewelry items were worn in the March, 2005, production of "Dido: Queen of Carthage" by the American Repertory Theatre at the Loeb Drama Center -- Harvard, in Cambridge, MA.
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