“I have always loved beautiful things. And I never wanted my life to be boring. Maybe that’s why I’m drawn to jewelry— it has a sculptural quality that makes it interesting and takes it beyond mere decoration. When I was an antique jewelry dealer for over 30 years, I feasted on so much variety that it was like being a curator of mini works of art.
There is an individuality to antique jewelry that I wanted to capture when I designed my own line. As a New Yorker, I value individual style, but as a native Midwesterner, I’ve always needed to keep it real. So I created a line of sculptural jewelry rooted in nature, and I worked like a madman to keep the price in the $100 to $300 range—say, the cost of a nice celebratory meal, not a mortgage payment. Just enough of a splurge to feel like a sneaky treat for yourself.” –J.M.
When Janet was 6, she enjoyed (unlike most people her age) watering the garden to watch one of the simplest pleasures in her life: the marigolds dancing at her feet.
When she was too young to know better, Janet opened her Madison Avenue store, J. Mavec & Company (1983 -2007), at the age of 27.
Janet, more recently, out for a walk with the dogs on the New Jersey farm she calls home.
We use fine-jewelry techniques from past centuries that Janet studied in her 20-plus years as owner of the Madison Avenue boutique J. Mavec & Co. Because she spent so much time riffling through estate jewelry to find precious pieces, Elle Magazine dubbed Janet the “Treasure Hunter.”
We manufacture in Rhode Island, the heart of fashion jewelry production in the 19th and 20th century. The pieces have the weight of a precious metal at a fraction of the price. That’s because we use 18k-gold and sterling-silver plated brass. Our pieces always feel heavier than you think—in a good way.
We connect you to the wonder of nature through impeccable details and in the finish of each piece. We like people to connect and admire the curious world of nature. Our pendants, earrings, bangles and bracelets are crafted with meticulous detail drawn from the natural world: Acorns with cross-hatched caps, doves with carved feathers, delicate curled string beans.
Our goal is to create beautiful, everyday jewelry that could become collectible one day. After all, it should be the artistry of a piece that makes it last, not just what it’s made of.
