Huggie Earring Jackets

American jewelry designer Llyn Strong works with rusted iron, white pearls, lapis lazuli, morganite and many more distinctive materials in Greenville, South Carolina, to create mostly one-of-a-kind necklaces, earrings, rings and other accessories that are as much sculptural works of art as they are jewelry.

Strong studied jewelry design at Western Carolina University and created her first piece in 1972. She opened the doors of Llyn Strong Fine Art Jewelry in 1986 and firmly established herself as an important member of the community in downtown Greenville for more than three decades. Then, in 2021, she moved to a smaller space on Washington Street in midtown. 

The move especially marked an important transition in Strong’s business perspective. Rather than endeavoring to evolve into a flashy jewelry empire, Strong recognizes that her clientele is specific — she sits with her customers and discusses their styles and needs — and that the firm’s unique, handcrafted melds of precious gemstones and unconventional materials don’t appeal to every kind of wearer. Her work is mostly custom, and whether it’s a beaded multicolored sapphire necklace or a mint-green tourmaline ring, the work of Llyn Strong Fine Art Jewelry is in a class of its own.

Strong is backed by a tight-knit, incredibly talented team — three-quarters of her staff are designers themselves with their own custom lines. A collection that followed their transition in 2021 served to commemorate the change — it’s butterfly-themed and includes 18-karat yellow and white gold butterfly dangle earrings and a bracelet aptly called the “Strong Transformation” Butterfly cuff. 

Strong's daughter, Sydney, took up the family business and has long worked alongside her mother. Sydney excelled in athletics and helped her mom design when she wasn’t playing soccer — eventually, she grew passionate about design and she completed a graduate degree in the gemologist program at the Gemological Institute of America.

Always an artist first and a businesswoman second, Strong is happy in the new environment, still putting customers first. To her, jewelry is an artistic expression that says who you are, and to that point, her work speaks volumes.

Find a collection of Llyn Strong rings, earrings, necklaces and other jewelry on 1stDibs.

Contemporary jewelry is inextricably linked with the moment in which it is created, frequently reflecting current social, cultural and political issues such as environmental consciousness, identity and sustainability. It’s informed by fashion trends, from the chokers of the 1990s to the large chain necklaces of the early 2000s.

Jewelry is one of the oldest forms of adornment. Lockets made of silver or gold have been treasured gifts for hundreds of years, for example, and charm bracelets, which have existed since prehistoric times, didn’t become especially popular until the 19th-century reign of Queen Victoria. For many centuries, fine jewelry was used primarily to express wealth or status through lavish materials. Then, in the 1960s, a concept known as the “critique of preciousness” emerged, with jewelers creating pieces that did not get their value from gemstones or precious metals. Instead, it was the jeweler’s artistic vision that was prized and elevated.

This shift still informs Contemporary jewelry being made by artists today. Whether they are using cheap, found materials and working with provocative geometric shapes or seeking out the rarest stones, they are imbuing their work with meaning through their skills, techniques and ideas. Innovative designers such as Elsa Peretti, who popularized sculptural sterling-silver jewelry for Tiffany & Co., and David Yurman, who twisted metal into the simple yet striking Cable bracelet, have also influenced the direction of Contemporary jewelry’s forms and aesthetics.

Meanwhile, technological advancements like metal alloys and laser engraving have led to new possibilities in jewelry design. Now, edgy makers and brands as well as minimalist designers are pushing Contemporary jewelry forward into the 21st century.

Find a collection of Contemporary rings, earrings, necklaces and other jewelry on 1stDibs.

In the United States, ear piercing didn’t really become popular until the 1950s and ‘60s, but our desire for a dazzling pair of vintage earrings has deeper roots than that. In fact, wearing earrings actually goes back thousands of years, and you can find many tangible connections between now and then in how we continue to talk about these treasured accessories.

Women wore ornamental earrings — studs and hoops at the very least — in Ancient Egypt, which is home to mines that are among the earliest sources of emeralds in the world. Emerald earrings are highly prized today, and their quality lies in their rich, saturated color. The highest-quality emeralds are green or bluish-green. Earrings worn by the affluent in early Roman civilizations were set with precious stones such as diamonds and pearls, and a clean-looking pop of pearl on the front of the lobe is as timeless as ever. Hoop earrings are imbued with symbolism and cultural significance for many, and on view in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Ancient Near Eastern Art Gallery is a pair of simple gold hoops from Mesopotamia dating to between 2600 and 2500 B.C.

Today, ear piercing is very popular all over the world, and, as a result, it is difficult to overstate how much everyone pines for a good pair of earrings — modernist drop earrings, glamorous Victorian hoops, geometrically complex chandelier earrings, you name it. Sure, jewelry trends and the fashion darlings of social media come and go, but earrings have a staying power that seems impenetrable: The still-strong love affair between British royals and Cartier earrings is more than a century old, glossy 1970s hoops from legacy houses such as Bulgari and Van Cleef & Arpels remain the statement makers they’ve always been and although people have been stacking earrings for many moons, the allure of an expertly mismatched stack of charms and studs still feels fresh and new.

While there is no shortage of modern earring designs to choose from, the classics, like coral earrings, Art Deco–style earrings and diamond drop earrings are still heavy hitters. On 1stDibs, find a wide range of antique, new and vintage earrings today.