Words by Michelle Orman

Read here

“An artist whose chosen medium is precious metals and gemstones, Alice Herald first discovered jewelry design while studying sculpture in Mexico. Traces of ancient, Mexican architecture can still be found in her work today, which is bolstered by years of intensive training, education and empirical knowledge. Her work is an expression of her lived experiences, her worldview and themes that spark her interest and curiosity. Legends of lore and mythology combine with concepts of art and architecture in her designs, and the unique beauty in the materials with which she works is enhanced by her unwavering commitment to responsible luxury.

Upon her return from Mexico to the UK, Alice cemented her newfound love by earning her BA hons in Jewelry Design from London’s prestigious Central St Martins. She went on to work alongside goldsmiths to the Royal family, skilled artisans, glassmakers and fashion designers, continually honing her acumen and expertise of her craft.

A love of the outdoors and skiing prompted her to move to New Zealand, where she now lives with her family, and from where she co-founded an international, online engagement ring website. After serving as the Product Manager and Head Designer of the site for 8 years, in 2016, she launched her eponymous brand.

Each of the designs in the Alice Herald brand conveys a sense of both fluidity and solidity. Elegant and sculptural, ethereal narratives come to life in the permanence of 18k gold, which Alice sources exclusively from alluvial deposits from New Zealand’s South Islands.

Her fastidiousness in her choice of metal is representative of her determination to give back to local communities and avoid the harms cause by mining and is fueled by the profound connection she feels with the Island nation.

The creative approach she’s developed over the years is underscored by a continual and intimate dialogue she has with the materials with which she works, and each of her designs is infused with a genuine appreciation for nature and humanity.

Alice’s choice of diamonds, also, ensures that the work she produces has a positive impact on the world. Her decades of entrenchment in the industry and her many long-standing relationships with site-holders allow her to be particular in the stones she hand-selects for her designs, and she is tenacious in aligning only with those who share her sense of social responsibility.

The authenticity in her dedication to creating pieces her collectors can feel good about is felt in all touchpoints of her brand, with a respect and admiration for the artisans with which she works central to the Alice Herald brand ethos.”

]]> https://aliceherald.com/vanity-fair-on-jewellery-annabel-davidson/ Thu, 10 Jul 2025 02:24:55 +0000 https://aliceherald.com/?p=10502

In the remote New Zealand countryside, Alice Herald has discovered independent miners who source gold without using cyanide or mercury-all the better to make her punky yet refined jewellery with, says Annabel Davidson

DIGGING DEEPER by Annabel Davidson

VANITY FAIR On Jewellery – July/August 2025

“THINK OF NEW ZEALAND, and most likely you’ll envisage sheep, bungee jumping, the All Blacks, and Hobbiton, the movie set where some of the Lord of the Rings series was filmed. Very few people think of gold, but for jeweller Alice Herald, Aotearoa, the Māori word for New Zealand, and gold go hand in hand.

“Traceability and responsible luxury are hugely important to me,” the Wanaka-based, British-born jeweller says. “And being in a small country like New Zealand, when you’re very far away from the industry, you have the luxury of being more in control, as you’re not that far from the source.”

Herald’s work, which ranges from ultra-wearable gold hoops striped with diamond rows, to dramatic, punkish bangles studded with diamonds and set with an oversized pink cabochon tourmaline, is now all made in traceable New Zealand gold-which wasn’t possible until she pushed for it. “We have gold in New Zealand, and I’ve been badgering a foundry here for two years to keep it separate from other sources, such as recycled gold or scrap metal,” she says. “Surely we must be able to make gold that is mined right here traceable? But it’s down to volume.

It’s not worth a foundry’s time and effort to keep newly mined New Zealand gold separate from everything else.”

That everything else is mainly lemel, the dust and tiny bits of gold from a jeweller’s bench; scrap, old, broken or unwanted jewellery, watches, silverware or anything containing precious metal; and sweep, the dust and other accrued material from any space that uses precious metal. It’s also newly mined gold from small-scale mines across Australia and New Zealand.

New Zealand has only a couple of large-scale mines, but on the West Coast of the South Island, private, small-scale contractors can mine for alluvial gold (which has been naturally eroded from mountains by melting glaciers), often using nothing more than gravity and magnets to separate the gold from the black sand and silt it is found in.

“A representative for the foundry that is now supplying me with pure New Zealand gold literally goes around these private miners and collects their gold in glass jam jars,” Herald laughs. “And then it goes to the refinery in Auckland where it’s kept completely segregated, locked in its own vault, and only cast on certain days when they don’t cast any other type of gold.”

Last year, in a bid to sate her curiosity and see for herself first-hand how the gold is mined, Herald travelled to meet one contractor, who mines a claim on a bit of farmland near the West Coast town of Hokitika as a side gig to his contracting business. Earlier this year, she returned to learn more. “He has been mining since he was 15, and he’d be in his early Gos now,” Herald says.

“He drove me out to his claim past lots of exhausted ones, some of which haven’t been touched since the 186Os.” (New Zealand experienced a gold rush for about 20 years from the 186os.)

“There were old sites that were just holes, and mounds of debris and rocks, and he could tell me what era they were from because of their condition.”

When they reached one particular stretch of farmland, consisting of beautiful green grass mounds, like small hills, the miner announced that he had mined that site, and as per Department of Conservation regulations, returned it to beautiful grazing land. “A year earlier, it had been this big water pit being mined, and now it’s back to being lush green pasture,” Herald says.

“What makes the way he mines so environmentally friendly is that he’s working with the water table, so there’s no transporting of water or dirty water run-off. They work within the pit, take the silt back to his big shed where they just separate the gold from the black sand by spinning it centrifugally and using water and gravity. There’s no cyanide or mercury. It’s just so incredibly simple.” Simple, maybe, but if it wasn’t for Herald spending years campaigning for her miner contact’s gold-and others like it-to be segregated from the rest, New Zealand gold as a precious, traceable, responsibly mined product wouldn’t exist. It’s proof that the actions of one person can make a huge difference. May the industry as a whole follow suit.”

In the remote New Zealand countryside, Alice Herald has discovered independent miners who source gold without using cyanide or mercury-all the better to make her punky yet refined jewellery with, says Annabel Davidson

DIGGING DEEPER by Annabel Davidson

VANITY FAIR On Jewellery – July/August 2025

“THINK OF NEW ZEALAND, and most likely you’ll envisage sheep, bungee jumping, the All Blacks, and Hobbiton, the movie set where some of the Lord of the Rings series was filmed. Very few people think of gold, but for jeweller Alice Herald, Aotearoa, the Māori word for New Zealand, and gold go hand in hand.

“Traceability and responsible luxury are hugely important to me,” the Wanaka-based, British-born jeweller says. “And being in a small country like New Zealand, when you’re very far away from the industry, you have the luxury of being more in control, as you’re not that far from the source.”

Herald’s work, which ranges from ultra-wearable gold hoops striped with diamond rows, to dramatic, punkish bangles studded with diamonds and set with an oversized pink cabochon tourmaline, is now all made in traceable New Zealand gold-which wasn’t possible until she pushed for it. “We have gold in New Zealand, and I’ve been badgering a foundry here for two years to keep it separate from other sources, such as recycled gold or scrap metal,” she says. “Surely we must be able to make gold that is mined right here traceable? But it’s down to volume.

It’s not worth a foundry’s time and effort to keep newly mined New Zealand gold separate from everything else.”

That everything else is mainly lemel, the dust and tiny bits of gold from a jeweller’s bench; scrap, old, broken or unwanted jewellery, watches, silverware or anything containing precious metal; and sweep, the dust and other accrued material from any space that uses precious metal. It’s also newly mined gold from small-scale mines across Australia and New Zealand.

New Zealand has only a couple of large-scale mines, but on the West Coast of the South Island, private, small-scale contractors can mine for alluvial gold (which has been naturally eroded from mountains by melting glaciers), often using nothing more than gravity and magnets to separate the gold from the black sand and silt it is found in.

“A representative for the foundry that is now supplying me with pure New Zealand gold literally goes around these private miners and collects their gold in glass jam jars,” Herald laughs. “And then it goes to the refinery in Auckland where it’s kept completely segregated, locked in its own vault, and only cast on certain days when they don’t cast any other type of gold.”

Last year, in a bid to sate her curiosity and see for herself first-hand how the gold is mined, Herald travelled to meet one contractor, who mines a claim on a bit of farmland near the West Coast town of Hokitika as a side gig to his contracting business. Earlier this year, she returned to learn more. “He has been mining since he was 15, and he’d be in his early Gos now,” Herald says.

“He drove me out to his claim past lots of exhausted ones, some of which haven’t been touched since the 186Os.” (New Zealand experienced a gold rush for about 20 years from the 186os.)

“There were old sites that were just holes, and mounds of debris and rocks, and he could tell me what era they were from because of their condition.”

When they reached one particular stretch of farmland, consisting of beautiful green grass mounds, like small hills, the miner announced that he had mined that site, and as per Department of Conservation regulations, returned it to beautiful grazing land. “A year earlier, it had been this big water pit being mined, and now it’s back to being lush green pasture,” Herald says.

“What makes the way he mines so environmentally friendly is that he’s working with the water table, so there’s no transporting of water or dirty water run-off. They work within the pit, take the silt back to his big shed where they just separate the gold from the black sand by spinning it centrifugally and using water and gravity. There’s no cyanide or mercury. It’s just so incredibly simple.” Simple, maybe, but if it wasn’t for Herald spending years campaigning for her miner contact’s gold-and others like it-to be segregated from the rest, New Zealand gold as a precious, traceable, responsibly mined product wouldn’t exist. It’s proof that the actions of one person can make a huge difference. May the industry as a whole follow suit.”

The Light My Fire Pinky ring in Diamond and 18kt New Zealand Gold

Couture Design Awards 2025

The Couture Design Awards are considered the Oscars of the international jewellery world and held once a year at the prestigious Couture show in Las Vegas. 

The gold category was the largest at the show with some insanely beautiful jewels up for the award. We entered the Light My Fire Pinky because it’s not only a very cool new design of mine but it is also crafted entirely in NZ alluvial yellow gold and diamond. The NZ gold being the point we were celebrating and showing off. A career high point and one I’m so incredibly proud of my team for doing so well in. 

There is no ‘i’ in team. I have a vision and keep working it until it sings. This is only the beginning. My CAD team bring my designs into 3d reality then my jewellery team test and tweak through modelling, resins and gold until all moving parts are perfect. Then we assemble, set and polish. It’s a constant conversation between many skilled designers and craftsmen to get the balance right. 

I’m thrilled that the 5 judges who are all at the top of their game saw the work that goes into a piece like this and have since received personal messages from some of them and other people of note saying just this. 

Sharing this with you, many of whom are clients, as I know you too share in the love of bringing a vision to life. This vision is part of a big dream that is ever so slowly coming into being….

Alice x

By Anthony DeMarco for Forbes.

READ HERE

Link to FashionNZ article.

Notes from Abroad

A few snippets for you from my recent trip to the USA and UK where I attended the largest industry show and made some fantastic connections for future projects. Precious also to reconnect with current and new suppliers whilst hearing the latest first hand from the top voices in the diamond and jewellery world.

A dash of art and inspirational tourist exploring was enjoyed also.

Alice x

Part One: Vegas – the Shows

Me having a virtual tour of one of my diamond suppliers cutting factories, a state of the art holographic machine to “try on your diamond” and meeting one of the brothers from the Italian family boxing firm who have made all my gorgeous leather and suede displays and boxing for over 12 years.  

Part Two: LA – French 75’s

LA was about catching up on some design work and creating new connections. A client and now wonderful friend as many of you become, hosted a fantastic evening at her house to celebrate women and fine jewels. Hilariously one had studied fashion at Central St Martins and another a similar close connection so the world really isn’t that big is it? I look forward to returning next year to create some special pieces for some of the women.

Part Three: New York – Art and the Art of Diamond Cutting

I essentially absorbed myself in art for 3 days with some meetings dotted in-between. Whilst we do have art and some fantastic architecture in New Zealand, there’s nothing quite like MoMa, The Met and the Guggenheim to spark inspiration for a designer, go and see some classics as well as some new movers and shakers.

Such a highlight was standing alongside some significant diamonds being cut in one of the longest established family sight holder companies in New York. Being able to meet these incredibly skilled craftsmen and see them in action was a true privilege and one I will remember for a long time to come.

Whilst the industry is supporting the African communities from where the diamonds originate in keeping the diamond cutting there before the material is exported, it is lessening the need to maintain skilled cutters in the destinations, so it is sadly becoming a dying art closer to home. That said, really special stones and ones being re-purposed and cut are kept ‘in-house’ and some final facets are saved for when they arrive on our shores closer to their final destination. A very special experience.

A large heart diamond in the process of being cut – waiting to have its cleave and final facets cut. A stunning emerald I found and a very beautiful 20 carat emerald diamond.

Part Four: England – Meetings and a dash of competitive golf

A couple of days with work in London then some blissful time in the beautiful sun drenched British countryside with family and friends to finish off the world tour.

I stopped by the place where it all started – Central Saint Martins – the original buildings now empty as the university has moved to the very modern Kings Cross.

Quite special to sit and contemplate on my return train to the country on quite how busy I’ve been, the jewels I’ve designed and gems I’ve worked with since those days at St Martins. I could never have imagined it. 20 years on and it’s important recognise the journey and to acknowledge the steps taken as well as some of the brilliant people who’ve come along with me.

]]> https://aliceherald.com/our-spring-opening-celebration/ Sat, 24 Dec 2022 00:19:39 +0000 https://aliceherald.com/?p=4789

An array of Bespoke and Couture rings from Alice’s clients and collections.

Our Spring Opening Celebration went down a treat.

The new Wanaka design studio is well and truly christened and our Ready-to-Wear Collections now launched online, quite a week.

Always some chilled bubbles ready to pop, so if you missed out, come by.

In the meantime, check out our new accessible from wherever you are fine jewels . We have 4 collections in Ready-to-Wear available to purchase online with a few new pieces in our Diamond Couture and Diamond Rings as well.

Enjoy!

Alice x 

VIEW READY-TO-WEAR HERE

Uniquely beautiful.