UNIQUE HANDMADE JEWELRY:

FEARLESS AND BOLD

Perhaps I just enjoy a larger canvas or like to pretend I’m from a time when women boldly and unapologetically wore their jewelry as a statement of who they were, what they loved and how they saw the world and themselves.

Either way, VAN LEE DESIGNS is statement jewelry that is handcrafted by me, from start to finish.  

From the seeds of inspiration to stone selection and final design, I love handcrafting each piece from rough to final polish.  

At times, inspiration is as simple as connecting to the stones while I hold them, marveling at their colors and patterns, their energy and thinking about the elemental forces and millions of years it took to create them.  

The ‘unearthly glow of moonstones’, seeing the ‘Aurora Borealis’ in a Labradorite and the images of fire and lava in a perfect fire agate draw me to these remarkable stones.  From them, I forge bold, statement making pieces that merge the energy and aesthetic of raw materials with inspiration and symbolism.  

My goal is to create beautiful, wearable jewelry that is both meaningful and personal to the wearer.

As I have grown as a designer and as a person, it has become increasingly important to make more conscious decisions about the stones and metals I use and their origins.  The environmental and human cost from the demand of certain minerals means that I try to make choices that are more in line with my values and vision.

When possible, I use recycled silver and gold in my designs. Though I have plenty of stones from years of collecting, I try to search for responsible sources for my new stone purchases.  I prefer to purchase stones mined and cut in places such as Canada, the U.S. and Europe and other locales where human and environmental costs are more transparent and minimized.