Hello elegance, my old friend!

Is timeless elegance in everything you do?

Your interior, your hairdo, your outfits, your jewelry and the places you visit too?

I bet it isn’t because of a fading trend, but the beautiful design and quality that made you fall in love with those shoes you just bought. Because you like things to last.

You’re committed to your belongings -like you are to your loved ones. 

Hi there!

I’m Hannah

I design intricate and innovative statement jewelry for women who stand out with their timeless elegance.

I design jewelry for women like you, who:

  • have a natural sense for timeless elegance in everything they do.
  • know how to strike the balance between contemporary innovation and classic elegance.
  • use their distinguished sense of style to create a sense of belonging -in their homes and outfits.
  • understand how carefully created and curated objects can comfort the soul. 

If love is a universal language, then so is beauty.

I believe in “home” and the comfort of things.

Not just anything.

But the beautiful thing. The handmade thing, the well made thing. The lovingly created and passed down thing.

While “home” might be ever-changing and the people that make us feel “at home” might be fleeting, I know how objects, creativity and nature can give comfort and soothe our sense of loss.

We all experience loss. 

Things can offer us solace, when we have troubles seeing beauty. They make us feel confident, when we are stumbling. They can make us feel like we belong, when we’re lost. They are a reminder, a presence, of someone or someplace we miss. 

Things we love are like lifelines.

This is how Hannah Tomoko jewelry was born: a desire to create lasting and soothing wearable beauty for others, by creating directly with my hands, using my innovative filigree-inspired technique.

As a dual citizen USA-Belgium, having moved across the Atlantic at the age of 11, I have a strange connection with loss -loss of home, loss of belonging.

In my ongoing search for a sense of belonging, I have found comfort in one of the most astonishing abilities of humankind: the creation of beauty out of a void.

“It’s about going from

the discomfort of not fitting in, but not standing out either,

to,

the comfort of belonging by standing out.

Creating your own universe when you’re lost in the existing one.”

Filigree

Though I’ve had a soft spot for miniatures and accessories since early childhood, my deep love for jewelry and precious metals sparked during my gap year in Paraguay.

There, I discovered filigree jewelry for the first time. I was captivated by the intricate swirls and endless possibilities of this fine ornamental goldsmithing technique. There was no way back for me: I went on to study Jewelry Design & Jewelry Art in Belgium and Sweden.

a happy happenstance

It was during my BA, in 2005, that I came across my filigree-inspired technique. By accident. 

I am so grateful that my professors encouraged me to explore it.

After designing a stretchable bracelet, I knew there was potential to develop it. But I was 21 and curious! And so I ventured into the little known world of contemporary jewelry art, researching alternative materials and wearability.

PhD

I enjoyed the conceptual challenges of studying under renowned European artists and completed a PhD in Arts in 2013.

But while researching the role of objects in how we deal with loss and reading about the power of creating objects, my hands started to disagree. 

Following my intellectual curiosity had led me to feel lost. Again.

Back to the beginning

In 2015, as I returned to the US, my first home country, I decided to revisit my innovative filigree-inspired technique.

There, 10 years after discovering the technique, my mission became clear:

with just one delicate winding line I want to create beauty that lasts, despite changes in our lives. 

Beauty that reflects the rhythmic, cyclical beauty that nature harbors. Beauty that calms the aching hands, relieves the hungry intellect and nourishes the longing heart.

here & now

Now, back in Belgium again, that second home-country, the search for belonging has taught me that I need to embrace my depths before I can reach new heights.

Designing jewelry keeps me afloat -each piece is like a lifeline.

It is my deepest desire to share my little lifelines with you. So that you, too, can enjoy the strength of floral beauty, of intricate innovation and timeless design.

I am dedicated to timeless elegance.

Are you?

Yes! ... and please throw me a lifeline too ♡