Dana Levy's beautiful jewellery designs combine a bold bohemian aesthetic with a sense of meaning. Here, Dana describes the ethos of the brand and the love that goes into each and every one of her fabulously feel-good designs.
How did the Dana Levy brand come to be?
My company was created kind of by accident. I have an art and design background so have always been involved in the industry in some way. In the '90s I relocated to Jerusalem after completing an art and design foundation course at Central St. Martins in London (and 1st year of a degree in Product design at CSM), and completed a BFA degree in Fine Arts at the Bezalel Academy of Art & Design. Whilst there I began designing pieces of jewellery for myself and friends and taught myself various different techniques. When I returned to London in 2001, I made some yoga bags for myself and my flatmate using stunning silk damask fabrics that I had discovered when I was living in the Middle East to put our yoga mats in as I couldn’t find any decent looking ones, and we were both constantly stopped in the street by people asking us where they were from. My brother in law who runs an amazing marketing company advised and helped me to set up a website to sell them. They immediately received quite a lot of press attention and were featured in magazines such as Vogue and Harpers Bazaar. Soon after I added my first jewellery collection to my website with pieces featuring spiritual amulets and talismans such as the hamsa hand and evil eye charms which back then were quite rare. The collection was quickly snapped up by Liberty and I sold my subsequent jewellery collections there for over 4 years. The jewellery range evolved and overtook the initial yoga bag collection and I now focus mainly on my jewellery collections which I love and am really passionate about. Today they are sold in department stores and independent boutiques worldwide, and my complete jewellery and accessories collections are sold via my website.
My jewellery lines are inspired by the exotic sights and traditions from different cultures worldwide. Each piece uses the highest quality materials exclusively sourced from around the world too. They incorporate beautiful symbolic mystical charms, amulets and talismans with spiritual meanings.
There is always a starting point to my ranges whereby I look at ancient symbols, amulets and charms from different cultures and combine them with contemporary materials to give them a modern twist. The pieces must have a significant charm or spiritual meaning in some way. I never produce anything just for the sake of it. Each piece is hand crafted with love and attention to detail.
Many of these originate from the Middle East. For example, the evil eye, Kabbalah tokens and hamsa hand charms feature heavily in my ranges - these charms can be seen in many places, particularly in Jerusalem. The evil eye has always been considered as a powerful talisman to defy evil forces. It is an amulet believed to protect against the evil eye. The hamsa hand serves as an ancient talismanic way of averting harm by providing a ‘protective hand’ over the 5 senses. The kabbalah tokens I use in my pieces have various blessings (for happiness, Protection against the evil eye, Miracles) in Aramaic code on one side and its Hebrew translation on the reverse. The Aramaic blessings symbolise the 72 names of god.
How do you set about designing a new collection?
I don’t usually design a whole collection in one go. I always carry around a sketch book with me so I am constantly sketching ideas and notes as and when they come to me. Once I have an idea that I think is worth developing further I usually prepare mood boards with collated images and sketches of my initial ideas. My collections usually come about organically in the sense that I may have an idea for one particular piece and work on that, and whilst designing it and sourcing components to make it, I will suddenly have another idea to create other pieces that relate to the original piece in some way, incorporating a particular detail or colour scheme used in the original piece, and before I know it I suddenly have 20 pieces! I spend quite a lot of time sourcing components for the pieces which is an important part of the business and one that I thoroughly enjoy too. All the pieces are hand crafted in London.
What inspires you?
Primarily different cultures inspire me and fascinate me. I am always researching different traditions and beliefs in different religions and cultures and discovering their fascinating history and meanings. Places with spiritual energy also inspire me. When I visit different countries that I feel a strong spiritual connection to I feel extremely inspired to express the beauty and culture of the place in my work. Jerusalem is one such place. I think it inspires me in the sense that it’s still modern yet has such strong ties to ancient traditions and symbolism which is what I aim to do with my collections. It was whilst living in Jerusalem, immersed in the city’s rich spirituality, beauty, history and culture, that my inspiration for designing jewellery and accessories was truly established.
When you’re not designing jewellery, what do you like to do?
I love travelling but when I am home and have time off I enjoy visiting museums and art galleries which I also find inspiring. I really enjoy watching movies and am a magazine obsessive so spend a lot of my free time reading magazines. I also love spending time with family and close friends. I would love to start painting again but need the space and time. Hopefully one day that will happen.
What does it mean to you to live a 'joyful' life?
Living a joyful life is to be surrounded by people you love and care about and who care about you. Life is short and unexpected so we need to make the most of every moment of every day as we never know what’s around the corner. Living in the present and experiencing things is really important and enjoying the little things in life creates the fondest memories. You can just be hanging out with your closest friends having a laugh and this can create a most treasured memory, more than anything else. Appreciating what you have is also crucial to living a joyful life.
What’s your favourite piece from the current collection?
It has to be my enamel hamsa hand and evil eye charm maxi pom pom friendship bracelets as they are just so colourful and fun and put me in a good mood. They epitomise what my brand is all about – spiritual talismans in a fresh and modern style.
All my Dana Levy jewellery and accessory collections are available to buy at www.danalevy.co.uk