Bibi Van Der Velden

The price reflects both rare materials and a deeply hands-on process. Pieces combine prehistoric mammoth tusk, baroque pearls and real scarab beetle wings with gold, diamonds and precious stones. Van der Velden trained as a sculptor and describes the work as wearable art, so each design is conceived and built like a small sculpture rather than a production-line item.

If you want fine jewellery that doubles as a collectible object, it makes a strong case for itself. The scarab is one of the house's signature motifs, set with real iridescent beetle wing alongside gold and stones, so no two are quite alike. You are buying the artist's sculptural eye as much as the materials, which is the appeal for collectors who already own conventional diamond jewellery.

The brand is best known for designs drawn from animals and the natural world, with the scarab and the mammoth-tusk pieces among the most recognisable. The line launched in 2006 under the name Bibi van der Velden, Wearable Works of Art, and that sculptural, nature-led language has run through it ever since.

Her designs feature prehistoric mammoth tusk, baroque pearls and real scarab beetle wings, worked together with gold, diamonds and precious stones. The brand emphasises sustainably sourced gold; in 2011 she became an ambassador for the Solidaridad project on responsible gold mining and travelled through Colombia to work with mineworkers on more sustainable methods.

She is a Dutch jewellery designer and sculptor, born in New York and raised between the Netherlands and the English countryside. She is the daughter of Dutch sculptor Michèle Deiters, and she trained in sculpture in Florence, Amsterdam and The Hague between 1998 and 2005 before launching her brand.

Beyond her own collections, her work has been carried by retailers such as Bergdorf Goodman, Dover Street Market and Net-a-Porter. It has also been shown at luxury exhibitions in London, Paris, Tokyo and Los Angeles, and during shows at Amsterdam International Fashion Week, so it sits firmly in the high-end and concept-store world.

Auverture is a contemporary jewellery platform that Bibi van der Velden founded and serves as creative director of. It sits alongside her namesake design house, giving her a second role as a curator of contemporary fine jewellery rather than only a maker of her own pieces.

Yes. Her jewellery was featured in Coveted: Art and Innovation in High Jewelry, written by Melanie Grant and published by Phaidon. In 2019 she contributed a one-off Memento Mori Ring to the Hermitage Amsterdam exhibition Jewels! The Glitter of the Russian Court, underlining how her work is treated as art as much as adornment.

Because these pieces use organic materials like real scarab wing and ancient tusk, treat them more gently than all-metal jewellery. Keep them away from perfume, lotions, water and harsh knocks, store them separately so stones and gold edges do not scratch the organic surfaces, and lean on the maker's guidance for any cleaning rather than improvising at home.

A scarab stud or a smaller scarab piece is an approachable entry point, since it carries the house's signature motif in a wearable everyday form. If you are buying as a collector or for a milestone, the mammoth-tusk and animal-inspired designs deliver more of the sculptural drama the brand is celebrated for. Either way, you are buying into the nature-led, artist-made identity that defines the label.