Happy Birthday to Jolita Jewellery designer!

April 16th is a very important day, as today is my brother’s birthday! And of course without him there wouldn’t be any jewellery by Jolita.

So I wanted to dedicate a post to my brother today.

Originally born in Lithuania Algis (pronounce AL – as in Al Pacino and GIS as in gift, but with “s” -often mixed up with Elvis☺) at the age of 18 set to travel the world. After visiting New York, Sidney, Bali, Tokyo and many other cities he finally settled in London.

Having a love for art, languages and psychology he was studying various subjects, some by himself, some in the local college. Working as a manager in a gift shop, he always had a knack for fashion. In fact Vogue and Marie Claire were the magazines he used to post me, so that I could learn English.

Inspiration: Ivory bangles from Nigeria, XVI century

As any other young person in London when not at his day job, he was socializing with his friends, visiting art galleries, museums and just having fun. Fast forward n years later he was feeling rather unfulfilled at his job. So as a creative outlet we set to open a shop in Islington, selling womensware.

One thing that we couldn’t quite find for our store was jewellery, to compliment the clothes we had. That was the first seed towards creating the jewellery by himself, although it didn’t come into fruition for a little while. One day I came to see my brother after work and he greeted me with this big, over the top charm bracelet. I wasn’t too surprised as I was often getting gifts from him, but when he told me he made the bracelet himself I was stunned.

It appeared he had this recurring dream of a bracelet for about a week. Getting pretty tired of the same dream he asked a friend where he could get some bits and bobs to make a piece of jewellery. He was taken to a shop in a Beak street and never looked back.

Jolita Jewellery workshop with designer’s favourite scents by Diptyque

Algis started making various pieces for our friends and myself and his flat was filled with boxes and jars of beads and stones. Whenever not at work he would often call me to say he’s got a brilliant idea and can’t wait to get home to start creating. Being a business minded person I suggested we set up a company and that’s how Jolita Jewellery was officially born in the summer of 2008.

He refined his style over these years and never stopped surprising me. I always get compliments whenever I wear any of his designs. They are colourful, bold, unique and very different. At least that’s what our friends and customers say.

Algis designed custom made pieces for my friend’s wedding, both for the bride and a guest, for birthdays, as a love gift and also created a number of bespoke pieces to express someone’s dreams.

Bespoke pearl necklace and bracelet for a friend’s wedding

A bespoke bangle with feathers and crystals

Recently his designs were featured in various magazines and blogs across the world and I wish him all the creative success and to grace the cover of Vogue one day.

Haute Life Magazine cover January 2012