Inside the Collaboration: Harwell Godfrey

Please share who you are and what you do?

My name is Lauren Harwell Godfrey and I am a fine jewelry designer based in San Francisco.

Can you share some of your inspiration and meaning behind your designs? 

The original inspiration for my work came from the healing properties of stones arranged in sacred geometry motifs. I am also a collector of vintage textiles, and as I started diving deeper into sacred geometry I began to realize that these shapes and motifs are found in many textiles and ancient artifacts from all around the world. My ancestors are from many different regions in Sub-Saharan Africa, and my most recent work is inspired by patterns and motifs from this part of the world. As a woman of color working in fine jewelry, it’s been exciting to honor and explore this part of my heritage. 

How did you get started in jewelry?

My start in jewelry was accidental. I worked as an advertising Creative Director and Art Director for over 15 years when I left that industry to go to culinary school. I was in the middle of writing a recipe development blog, staging at various Bay Area restaurants and helping to open a restaurant in 2016 when I realized I needed a belt. I fell in love with tooling leather and started making jewelry in what was left of my spare time. I was designing and hand making a line of leather, horn and oversized crystal all on my own and was not quite ready for interest it received. Needless to say, I was totally bit by the jewelry bug and decided to figure out a more scalable business model. I transitioned to fine jewelry in 2018 and am so grateful for the wonderful response it’s been getting! 

Why did you choose a horn hexagon for this collaboration? 

I met a wonderful purveyor of recycled horn when I was hand making my jewelry and thought the texture and feel of the horn would make a beautiful embellishment for these shoes. The horn represents the materials from my first collection while the hexagon is a motif that I use throughout my fine jewelry work. I loved the idea of bringing these two iterations of my work together in this project.  

Can you explain why you love it with the black croc leather?

I absolutely love this combination of textures! It’s visually interesting and yet totally wearable. I have a sample of the shoes and never want to take them off!