Jewelry Designer and Metalsmith
Hovey Lee grew up in Hong Kong, and moved to the United States in 1991. For ten years, she and her husband lived and worked in New York City. In 2001, she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, and opened her jewelry studio. In 2002, she launched her first jewelry line and captured the attention of the fashion and art communities.


Hovey Lee Eco Living Tree II Necklace
A two-sided hollow medallion 1.5 inches in diameter with a stylized tree silhouette cutout. On 3 strands of 24" fine cable chain. Made entirely of silver-plated recycled metal.
$58

Hovey Lee Eco-Gem Collection
This collection offers sophisticated designs using earth-friendly organic and reclaimed materials sourced from the US and fair-trade suppliers overseas. Using classic and modern wiring, beading, and metalsmithing techniques, Hovey Lee creates beautiful jewelry that is helping our environment to become a better and healthier place.


Hovey Lee Copperfrilli Earrings
These unique Copperfrilli Earrings consist of slim copper pieces that fan out like an umbrella from the ear wire. Sleek enough for an everyday ensemble. 2.25" long.
$44

Dedicated to promoting fair trade, human dignity, and environmental sustainability, Hovey Lee's designs are sourced from gemstone suppliers that adhere to Fair Trade sourcing standards, which ensures that these gifts of nature are brought to the customer in a socially and environmentally responsible way.


Hovey Lee Eco Shalesh Gold Bracelet
Cluster of matte goldplated round wavy vintage coins in a dangle toggle bracelet. Coins range from .75 inches to 1.5 inch. Made with recycled base metal with new goldplating, 7 inches long.
$58

At the Hovey Lee studio, they also uses components extracted from vintage jewelry, and creates new designs with reclaimed and recycled findings and gemstones. Wherever possible, Hovey Lee uses metals from renewed sources derived from recycled jewelry or industrial products, which reduces the need for additional mining of precious metals that could be harmful to our environment.

Hovey Lee's jewelry has been selected by fine art exhibits and featured in jewelry shows and boutiques around the nation and the world. As a child, Lee adored her mother's great sense of style, and always loved the visits to the tailors and jewelers. She was also enchanted by the eclectic designs and custom furniture her father, an interior designer, created for their home.

What Sets Us Apart
We do not follow trends merely because they're popular, nor are we satisfied with just making pretty pieces of jewelry. We strive to offer inspired and meaningful pieces that are personal and timeless. We believe in celebrating our heritage and rejoicing in multiculturalism, a quality we constantly try to communicate in our collections. We believe each woman is unique, and that her mood and style changes day to day. That's why we do not confine ourselves to one signature look. We believe minimalism is overrated.

Our Jewelry Making Processes
As artisan jewelry makers, we use both classic and modern wiring, beading, and metalsmithing techniques to create jewelry that features the beauty of the materials used. A wide variety of textures, patinas, and finishing techniques are used to bring the pieces to life.

We work in a range of materials including semi-precious gemstones, standard and Argentium sterling silver, karat golds, gold-filled, vermeil, brass and copper to produce jewelry that is meant to be tough and beautiful.

Here are some of the processes we use in making our jewelry:

Forging is shaping by repeated hammering against something hard like an anvil. We love the variety of textures this technique brings to the piece. It is our favorite way to show the hand-worked quality of our jewelry.

Fabrication is cutting, shaping, and assembling components made from raw materials.

Raising is a metalworking technique in which a sheet of metal is curved by repeated hammering and annealing of the metal to form the desired shape. In synclastic raising, the dominant curves of the object being forged are at right angles and move in the same direction. Anticlastic raising, on the other hand, refers to shaping an object where the dominant curves move in opposite directions.

Casting is a process by which the metal is injected into a mold, allowed to solidify in the mold, and then broken out to make a fabricated part. Casting is used for making parts of complex shapes that would be difficult to make by cutting the metal.

Karat Gold - pure gold is 24 karat. The gold more commonly sold in the market are 22k, 18k, 14k, and 10k. A lower karat indicates that copper or silver has been added to the gold to form an alloy - the lower the karat number the higher the percentage of copper or silver in the alloy.

Gold-filled - most gold-filled jewelry is composed of a solid layer of gold bonded to the outside of silver or a base metal such as brass.

Vermeil is sterling silver coated with 22k or 18k gold.