The former film professional has found herself working to save the elephants through her sustainable tagua-seed jewelry.
It’s difficult to separate Alexandra Mor from the jewels she creates. The New York resident specializes in elegant, well-crafted pieces with signature characteristics such as the use of large colored gemstones, “floating” diamond melee and knife-edge wire trim. Within a short time, she has received widespread praise and a loyal following for her creations, which reflect her own personal transformations.
Raised in Israel by a mother who worked as a couturier in Paris, Mor initially thought being a seamstress would be her life’s work. However, at the age of 12, the self-proclaimed “stubborn” child asked her mother to send her to a kibbutz, or farming collective. She agreed, and it turned out to be a life-changing experience.
“It is one of the most beautiful places on earth. I lived in the valley, walking barefoot, riding horses and living a very different life physically,” she recalls. “It shaped who I am today, internally. A lot of things I got at home from my mom — the creativity, the sense of design and tailoring. Living on a kibbutz gave me a path of connecting it to myself. It was a big gift in a big way.”
Image: Russell Starr.
Journey to jeweler
Mor went on to work in the Israeli film industry, eventually opening her own production house. She then moved to New York, where she studied film. Months before graduating, she met her future husband, Alon Mor, a diamond dealer from a family of diamond cutters.
He was the one who introduced her to the jewelry industry. When she was pregnant with her first son, she took an intensive bench jeweler’s class. “The moment I sat on that bench, there was an ‘aha’ moment, like I was home. I knew this was what I wanted to do.”
She spent the next two years learning the craft before designing her own collection. The signature style she developed draws on various design periods: Her knife-edge finishes paved with diamond melee take inspiration from Art Deco, while her use of platinum with the Alexandra Mor “AM” logo inside in yellow gold is based on the silver “travel jewelry” that royalty and nobility used to take with them on trips. The interior of these silver pieces would be fitted with gold to protect their skin and clothes against tarnishing.
In 2010, Mor created her first collection of 12 jewels, five of which sold at Phillips de Pury after one of the auction house’s top buyers saw Mor wearing her own jewels. Critical acclaim followed. Her accomplishments include a collaboration with Gemfields on a 26.16-carat sugarloaf emerald cabochon ring, which actress Mila Kunis wore in an advertising campaign for the gemstone miner.
Following a period of distributing her jewels through upmarket retailers, Mor now sells online via e-commerce site 1stdibs — though she still creates custom pieces for her private clients.
Crafting with a cause
In her career, Mor takes inspiration from strong women who set new standards, often in industries previously run by men — such as Coco Chanel, Dior high-jewelry head Victoire de Castellane, and anthropologist Jane Goodall. Chanel, notes Mor, was “the one who first designed pants for us women to wear instead of the tight corset.” And Mor considers Goodall “the most inspiring of all in her dedication to a single cause, which brings an effective solution to so much around her.”
Mor’s own path to a cause began when she felt the need for a creative boost after six years of managing her brand. She convinced her husband and three school-age children to move to Bali for a year so she could learn traditional Balinese jewelry-making techniques. While there, she learned about the connection between elephant poaching in Africa and ivory consumption in Asia. That led her to discover tagua — a South American palm tree seed with a brown skin over a hard, white kernel that resembles ivory in appearance and texture.
Enlisting Balinese craftsmen, Mor created a tagua-based capsule collection, which she unveiled in 2017. She followed that project with a collection combining tagua with sustainably sourced emeralds from the Muzo mine in Colombia.
Her newfound activism didn’t end there. Each year, she chooses a non-profit organization to support. This year, it’s Space for Giants, which protects African landscapes where elephants live. She also founded The Tagua Foundation, which empowers designers, students and young leaders to create sustainable jewelry projects.
“I have decided to use my voice to lead and inspire the fine-jewelry industry to take the necessary steps to care for our planet and its people through grace and education,” she says. “It doesn’t matter what we choose to do; what matters is that what we choose will make a difference.”
COMING FULL CIRCLE
Alexandra Mor’s commitment to creating jewels from responsibly sourced materials comes through in this one-of-a-kind ring, which features two Colombian emerald beads from the Muzo mine totaling 18.15 carats, and a 16.80-carat wild tagua bead. These, as well as the platinum and gold, are from sustainable sources, and the diamonds — which Mor’s husband acquired through reliable dealers — adhere to the Kimberley Process (KP) protocol.
While the piece bears Mor’s signature design details, the spherical beads are a new shape for her. “I wanted to create something more rounded and visceral,” she says. “A representation of mother earth that’s very feminine and soft. I’m continuing the same language as my previous work while bringing something new with the shape and materials.”
The ring is part of a five-piece collection that took about five months to create once Mor received the emeralds from Muzo, where the gems were also cut. The tagua was sourced and cut in Ecuador, and four artisans crafted the jewel in New York.
Main image: Alexandra Mor wearing her Lotus earrings featuring tagua, baroque pearls and carved wood. Image: Kevin Hatt.
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