Inspired by the forçat chains of her mother’s Martiniquan roots, Marie Lichtenberg’s symbolic love lockets honor artisanship and embody meaning. Traditionally handed down through the generations, the hollow gold chains with bold locket clasps celebrate emancipation in Creole culture. Marie received one from her mother as a teen, sparking her connection to the emotional value of jewelry. Years later, it would also lead her to explore what she would like to pass on to her own daughter in turn.
Marie designed her first love locket in India, where she fell in love with the country’s rich colors, spiritual heritage and ancestral jewelry-making traditions. The trip proved transformative, igniting an idea that would become Marie Lichtenberg Fine Jewelry. Today, she calls on some of the finest ateliers in the world to make her meticulously engineered lockets, seeking out experts in intricate hand-enameling, guilloché and ciselure. Master diamond cutters and polishers work alongside skilled stone-setters, while expert artisans create the signature gold coco finish. For each new expertise required, she sources highly talented jewelry craftspeople, those peerless few able to create truly singular jewelry. The love locks fasten 18 karat recycled gold chains made by hand in Italy, pearl-strewn silk Mauli strings from India, and hand-threaded Ghanaian beads scattered with gemstones. To these, she has added earrings, pendants, charms and bracelets with new gold finishes, as well as an ever-expanding collection of chains and cords, each developed with an uncompromising approach to quality.
