…redefining the creative artistry of diamond jewelry.
Willow Diamonds founder and owner Jacquie Earle is an American jewelry designer based in New York. She creates diamond jewelry and art pieces with artisan cut stones and innovative laser-pierced natural diamonds. She introduced her lasered diamonds in 2005 showing how the diamond freed from traditional metal mountings becomes imbued with light and mobility. Her pieces have a kinetic energy that is both lyrical and classic. And her collaborations with award-winning gemstone cutters have produced unique creations that ultimately become Willow Diamond collectibles.
A former textile designer and ballet dancer, Earle became attracted to jewelry mesmerized by natural gemstones and the amazing malleability of precious metals making jewelry both timeless, adaptable, and forgiving:
“Jewelry comes together choreographed like a dance with several moving parts and craft workers. You can take it apart, add or change different elements, refreshing and updating a piece … or preserving its legacy for generations.”
Practically speaking, she says,
“Jewelry is designed to be worn; because when you put it on that’s when it springs to life and comes alive – like a dance – and when paired with the perfect partner, that’s when magic happens.”
Earle founded Willow in 1999 working with catalog houses supplying fashion jewelry. Soon afterwards, customers were asking for her designs to be made in 18 kt gold and platinum and with the advent of her laser-pierced diamonds, the Willow Diamonds brand was born.
Earle credits her interest in art, language, and design to her roots. Earle is a first generation Chinese American whose parents were academics. Her father, Frederick T.C. Yu, was an emeritus professor and dean at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Her mother, Alice Chen Yu, was an ethnomusicologist whose mother, Alice Chen was a celebrated classical Chinese painter. Growing up, Earle lived and moved all over the country and abroad from her childhood years in Montana and Hong Kong to her college years at Barnard in New York City and graduate studies in anthropology at the University of Chicago and Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. She lives with her husband, Joe, in the garden state of New Jersey.
Notable for her innovative jewelry design work and ethics in sourcing responsibly, Earle has won high recognition with awards in the United States and Europe.
