How a St Lucia designer turns cocoa pods, coral and palm leaves into rings, earrings and necklaces you can stand behind
Why am I, of all people, writing about jewellery?
I audit brands for a living, nature inspired jewellery included. I read the fine print, I chase the supply chain, and most of what I look at fails. That’s the work behind Hold The Throne, and it has made me very hard to impress.
So here’s the confession. This is the first time I’ve connected with jewellery. Not liked it. Connected with it. And the pieces that did it are nature inspired jewellery, designed by a friend.
I met Anitanja Lawaetz in St Lucia, at Balenbouche Estate, and we became friends. Anitanja was raised in nature, and she lives as connected to it as she can. The inspiration is all around her: the cocoa on the trees, the palms, the reef. She simply made it into something you can wear.
That’s the whole brief. No trend board. No mood words. A woman who grew up in the green, drawing what she sees.
Anitanja Lawaetz is a Caribbean jewellery designer based in St Lucia. Artisans in Bali make each of her pieces by hand, and every order ships from the UK. Keep that sentence in mind; I’ll come back to why it matters.
If you want to see the brands I rate across the board, our ethical jewellery directory is where I keep them.
What is nature inspired jewellery?
Nature inspired jewellery is jewellery whose shape comes from something alive: a seed pod, a leaf, a branch of coral, a pebble worn smooth by water. The metal is cast to look grown, not stamped.
Nature jewellery designs aren’t decoration. They’re a record. Every ridge on a cocoa pod earring is a ridge Anitanja has seen on a real pod.
Is natural jewellery the same as nature inspired jewellery?
Natural jewellery and nature inspired jewellery are different things. Natural jewellery uses the material itself: seeds, shells, wood, real coral. Nature inspired jewellery takes the shape and leaves the material where it grew.
I’ll take a side. For something you wear every day, the second wins. Seeds crack. Shells chip. And real coral is a living animal under international trade controls, which I unpack in coral inspired jewellery.
Seed and shell jewellery has a long history in the West Indies, and I respect it. Nature inspired metal pieces carry that West Indian jewellery tradition forward without stripping a beach to do it.
What makes a piece of jewellery unique?
A piece of jewellery is unique when a person shaped it and nobody else is wearing the same story. Hand finishing leaves tiny differences in every casting, so no two of Anitanja’s pieces are identical. That’s what unique jewellery, and unique handmade jewellery especially, means. Not a marketing word. A fact of how it’s made.
Which collections does Anitanja Lawaetz design?
Anitanja Lawaetz designs three nature inspired collections: the cocoa collection, the ocean and coral collection and the leaf and flower collection. Between them they cover rings, earrings, necklaces and bracelets.
What’s in the cocoa collection?
The cocoa collection is her signature: cocoa pod earrings, cocoa pod studs, cocoa pod drop earrings, cocoa pod stacking rings, the cocoa pod bracelet and the cocoa necklace in brass, 18ct gold plate or sterling silver. Cocoa pod jewellery, shaped from the cacao pods that grow across St Lucia. The full story is in my guide to cocoa pod earrings.
What’s in the ocean and coral collection?
The ocean and coral collection is the sea in metal: the coral lace earrings, the pebble cluster ring, the lattice disc bracelet, the textured disc bracelet, the island station necklace and the twin stone open bangle. Ocean jewellery for people who need to see water to breathe out. I wrote about ocean rings separately.
And the leaf and flower collection?
The leaf and flower collection is botanical jewellery: the palm cuff, the leaf hoop earrings, the lily pad studs, the flower nest pendant and the flower end cuff. Leaf jewellery for the person who talks to their plants. (I do.)
Why does jewellery inspired by nature feel so powerful to wear?
Jewellery inspired by nature feels powerful because water, leaves and seeds have carried sacred meaning for thousands of years, across West Africa, the Caribbean and Central America, and the shape still carries that memory when you put it on.
Here’s how I see it. Everything you wear holds an intention. A chain stamped out by the thousand holds very little. A cocoa pod drawn by a woman who walks past cocoa trees, then cast and finished by hand by an artisan in Bali, holds a lot more. That isn’t woo. It’s attention, and attention is energy.
What does the ocean mean in West African and Caribbean tradition?
In the Yoruba religion of West Africa the ocean belongs to Yemọja, honoured as the mother of the waters, and her worship crossed the Atlantic to become Yemayá in Cuba and Iemanjá in Brazil. These are living faiths, practised today. A wave on your finger doesn’t make you a devotee. But knowing the story changes how the ring sits.
Why do leaves matter so much?
Leaves matter because, in Yoruba and Candomblé tradition, they belong to Ọ̀sanyìn, the orisha of healing, and a Candomblé saying holds that without leaves there is no orisha at all. Healing starts with a leaf. I love that a palm cuff can carry that. More in leaf earrings and lily pad studs.
What did cocoa mean to the Maya and the Aztecs?
Cocoa meant value and commitment: the Maya drank cacao at weddings, and the Aztecs used cacao beans as money. A cocoa pod at your ear is an old symbol of what’s worth keeping.
We seek to create signature handcrafted and ethical jewellery which embodies and helps promote the lifestyle and values aligned with an independent, innovative, eco conscious and socially responsible community.
Anitanja Lawaetz
Is Anitanja Lawaetz jewellery made in St Lucia?
No. Anitanja Lawaetz designs every piece in St Lucia, artisans in Bali make each one by hand, and orders ship from the UK. I asked her to say that plainly, and she does.
This is where my day job kicks in. Half the jewellery I audit says “handcrafted” and stops there. Handcrafted where? By whom? Silence. Anitanja tells you the island she designs on, the island her makers work on, and the country your parcel leaves from. That’s transparency. That’s the bar.
Bali has generations of skilled metalsmiths, and that skill is why her castings hold such fine detail: the veins of a lily pad, the ridges of a pod.
How do you choose nature inspired jewellery you’ll actually wear?
You choose nature inspired jewellery by picking the motif that means something to you first, then the piece you’ll reach for most often. Motif, then habit. In that order.
The sea, if water is where you reset. Leaves, if you’re happiest with your hands in soil. Cocoa, if the Caribbean is home or the place you keep going back to. Then the piece: earrings for every day, a ring you’ll see a hundred times a day, a necklace that sits over your heart. I’ve written a guide for each, nature inspired rings, nature inspired necklaces and nature inspired bracelets, and a gift guide if it isn’t for you.
Where can you buy jewellery from a Caribbean jewellery designer?
You can buy Anitanja Lawaetz’s nature inspired jewellery online at anitanjalawaetz.com, where every piece is listed by collection and ships from the UK to the UK, Europe and the rest of the world. Start with the full shop, or check shipping and returns first if you’re ordering for a date.
So which piece would I choose first?
The cocoa pod studs. Small enough for every day, and the shape that started it all. Then add the cocoa necklace when you’re ready to wear the whole story.
Thanks for reading! @queenofvitality
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