When Lauren rose to the scene as a new jewelry designer, she had already been a part of the jewelry world.
Born and raised in South Florida, Lauren made her way up to the northeast, where her grandfather ran a jewelry business in Manhattan. It was more of a traditional diamond business, according to Lauren, and it’s and where she worked with him after graduating college. She went on to law school, and upon graduation, her grandfather asked her to continue to help him, which she did – and ended up taking the business on as her own. As time went on, she learned more, gained even more mentors, and started to find the love in designing her very own pieces – which were surprisingly very much not the traditional diamond!
The move from mostly diamonds to colored stones was just an organic process to Lauren.
“I was just so used to just working with diamonds – making the same thing over and over, with no color,” she says. “But then I started putting rose cut sapphires in the place of where a diamond usually is.”
This opened her eyes to the beauty that gemstones can bring.
“I started going to gem shows,” she says, remembering one in Tucson, “…and it really opened my eyes as to how beautiful color can be in jewelry – it’s all so unique and each color has its own personality.”
From there, the rest was history! Lauren knew that divine, beautifully colored, handpicked gemstones is where her heart laid.
“The stone buy is definitely my favorite part about making jewelry,” gushes Lauren. “Looking through all of the trays and trays of gemstones… the best part about that is, you might not even notice a stone the first time you go through a tray, and then you look through again, and you see one, and you go, oh my gosh, this is it! And you know it’s going to be something very special.”
Sometimes she will realize immediately what the gemstone will become in her collection, and other times there is some more thought involved in order to use the stone… either way, she promises there’s nothing she likes more in her job than finding that one distinct gemstone and turning it into an exquisite wearable piece of art… and then doing it over and over again.
The most difficult about working with this type of jewelry, Lauren says, is that when a piece is sold, it’s not just sold out… it’s gone for good! “It’s a blessing and a burden, working with one-of-a-kind gems,” she laughs. “It is just disappointing to me when a customer misses out on a piece because someone else got to it first, and they really wanted it. While there may be something similar down the line, there will never be anything 100% identical, ever again!”
(So, a helpful tip – make sure to jump on the Lauren K piece you want before it slips away!)
Lauren has been loving the layered necklace trend lately. “Adding a pop of color is the perfect way to bring a refreshing breath of life into what you might already have,” she says. “I like to layer something like a stone on a paperclip chain with diamonds around it, or a simple bezel.”
She also has been seeing a lot of interest in heart shapes recently. “Hearts are great, because they’re timeless.”
Lauren anticipates that when wearing a piece of hers, you can feel like you can wear it from day to night. “From the carpool line or soccer field to cocktails & dinner – these are pieces that can honestly go everywhere for any occasion,” she says of her collection. She also hopes that when people wear one of her pieces, they can feel how truly special it is to wear something so irreplaceable. “Every one of our pieces are made in the U.S., and precured individually from start to finish,” she says. “They’re not mass produced, and you will never see the same thing on anyone else.”
Speaking of special, Lauren says that she has two pieces that she wears almost every day – her opal necklace and opal beaded bracelet. “My opal heart necklace is my absolute favorite piece of all time… I picked out the stone and made it just for myself; it really is so incredibly special to me.”