Beth Bernstein’s New Jewelry Book Tells the Future

By Amy Elliott | July 25, 2024

There’s a new jewelry book to add to your summer reading list (though it’s much too pretty to bring to the beach): Jewelry’s Shining Stars: The Next Generation: 45 Visionary Women Designers is the latest title from Beth Bernstein, one of the industry’s most respected editorial voices and authorities.

While her 2022 book, The Modern Guide to Antique Jewellery (see JCK’s review here), was a primer on jewelry history, Bernstein’s focus now is on the future of the jewelry industry. What does that look like? Bernstein sees a landscape that places women designers at the forefront.

“I thought it was time to feature the independent, irrepressible, and strong women today who are visionaries and are designing for a whole new generation and who, as I say in the book, are shaping jewelry’s present and future,” the author tells JCK.

Bernstein wrote a previous book with the title Jewelry’s Shining Stars, about 38 up-and-coming and evolving designers, and it provided a framework for the new edition. “I’d always wanted to do a follow-up,” she says.

When Bernstein revisited her 2013 Shining Stars as she was refining the list of names to include in the new book, she realized that quite a few of the designers she’d profiled were women: the founders of Sorellina, Megan Thorne, Sara Freedenfeld from Amali Jewelry, Jamie Joseph, Annie Fensterstock, Mizuki, and Lene Vibe, among others. “I was thrilled to see how so many of these women designers were so new then and are thriving today,” she says.

Ultimately, she landed on a stellar lineup of women who have challenged and liberated the conventions of fine jewelry—some reviving age-old design and craftsmanship traditions, others rebelling against them.

Beth b featured women — *Designers highlighted in* Jewelry’s Shining Stars: The Next Generation include (clockwise from top left) Lauren Harwell Godfrey, Foundrae’s Beth Hutchens, Maggi Simpkins, Marie Lichtenberg, and Stephanie Walters Abramow and Mollie Faith Good of Walters Faith.

The women featured in The Next Generation hail from around the globe and are at different stages of their careers, with many well on their way to achieving success. All of them create jewels that cross the boundaries of art, function, and wearability, says Bernstein.

The book (published by ACC Art Books, $65) includes a personal account from each designer on how she arrived in the world of jewelry and the inspirations that inform her work.

As Bernstein conducted her research and interviews, she made surprising discoveries about her subjects.

Lauren Rubinski bracelet — *Paulette necklace in 14k yellow gold and diamonds, Lauren Rubinski*

lizzie mandler portrait — *Lizzie Mandler*

Some, she says, were making jewelry from a very young age, including Jesse Marlo Lazowski, of Marlo Laz, who had a jewelry line, Shopgirl, at the age of 13. The French designer Lauren Rubinski had a jewelry line, Pristine, at 24. Lizzie Mandler started beading and making semiprecious jewelry when she was 12, metalsmithing at 16, and designed her first piece of jewelry for her middle-school graduation.

Others grew up around jewelry and landed in that world as adults. Alexandra Rosier, based in France, had parents who collected silver and Victorian pieces. She worked at Cartier and at Graff before debuting a line of her own.

Alexandra Rosier pendant — *Serenity pendant in 18k yellow gold, crystal, and diamonds, Alexandra Rosier*

London-based designer Nadine Aysoy had a grandfather, P.N. Ferstenberg, who was a sightholder in Antwerp in the mid-1960s. As children, Aysoy and her sisters cleaned and counted diamonds. She had a 23-year-long career in finance before the call of the jewelry world nudged her to return to it.

“It was also surprising to discover just how many of the designers learned to work at the bench and learned different processes as they continued in their careers,” says Bernstein, pointing to Erica Molinari, who took classes to learn jewelry-making so that she wouldn’t have to outsource the production of her designs.

EricaMolinari necklace — *Lotus flower necklace in 18k gold and diamonds with hand-painted vitreous enamel hummingbird and calla lily charms, Erica Molinari*

“So many of these women are true goldsmiths,” Bernstein adds. “They can do enameling or engraving and create new techniques based on traditional ones, turning them into something so relevant for the women of today.”

Of course the jewelry industry is chockablock with bros who have accomplished the same, but there’s something in the ether, isn’t there? Look around at the talent that surrounds us, listen to the voices that are ascending. On some level, the future is female indeed.

(Top photo courtesy of ACC Art Books; Harwell Godfrey photo: Tricia Turner Studio; Hutchens: Natasta Stanglmayr; Simpkins: Karla Ticas; Mandler: Susanne Kindt; Aysoy: Jade Cowans; Molinari necklace: Joe Holdsworth; other photos courtesy of the designers)

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