Elisa Gilbert had a choice to make upon her father’s death: She could continue her 30-plus-year career as a lawyer or she could drop everything, learn a new set of skills, and honor her family’s legacy.
It was an easy choice, Gilbert says. She is her family’s fourth generation of metal and gem workers, and she felt her dad’s expertise in jewelry would be lost if she ignored the opportunity for this second career.
“When my father passed, I felt this precious world slipping through my fingers,” Gilbert says. “Even the most secure path cannot eclipse the brilliance of art.”
In January 2020, Gilbert debuted Vivienne Charles, a jewelry brand steeped in her personal history. The name is a tribute to her parents, Vivienne—who was a New York City fashion illustrator—and Charles.
The Vivienne Charles Moonlit Bee pendant is made with 14k gold, rubies, diamonds, and moonstone (price on request).
Gilbert’s father, Charles, had learned the craft of jewelry-making from his father, Harry Gilbert—who was born Harry Silberstein in Paris, moved to the United States with metalsmithing skills, then pivoted to making fine jewelry in New York City. Harry had married the daughter of David Asher, a master watchmaker from Scotland who built a life for himself in the United States creating and repairing timepieces.
“In our home, everyone’s hands were busy,” Gilbert says. “Jewelry and gems were a way of life, so I have no memories without them.”
Gilbert was born in New York City and spent much of her childhood at The Place, the family’s nickname for their jewelry studio. She graduated from La Guardia High School of Music & Art, working during her free time at The Place with her father and grandfather.
Diamond-accented 14k gold frogs sit on carved carnelian leaves on Vivienne Charles’ Crimson Leap earrings (price on request).
“In those early days, I learned that discipline and patience are as vital to making jewelry as is a sense of daring,” Gilbert says.
Her path veered toward higher education. She received a bachelor’s in business administration from Cornell University in 1989 and graduated from Fordham University School of Law in 1991.
Though Gilbert embraced the legal profession, the allure of hammered gold and the world of jewelry-making always intrigued her. When her father died, she worried that both her physical and emotional connections to The Place might end—so, with the enthusiastic support of her relatives and closest friend, Gilbert decided to try her hand at jewelry.
“In a family of high achievers, creative pursuits were undeniably the most highly regarded,” she says. “We literally picked up my father’s tools and we cleaned them. In some instances, we repaired them.”
Described on the Vivienne Charles website as “a golden cricket, poised to strike up a nighttime concerto,” the 14k gold Celestial Serenade pin features emeralds and a star sapphire in the eye (price on request).
For Gilbert, her place is in Tuxedo Park, N.Y., where she has a studio in a cedar-clad Balinese tea house that overlooks a serene lake. She set up her lapidary workshop in a treehouse and her polishing lab in a greenhouse.
Her first jewelry collection, Birds, Bees, and Things from the Sea, celebrates nature, with handcrafted pieces that are sculptural or immortalize small creatures—like the Apis Verdi pin, a golden bee with emerald eyes reflecting the wildflowers it sees.
“Each bracelet or pendant is more than an adornment—it is a distilled legacy, a chronicle of the watchmakers, silversmiths, and dreamers who came before me,” Gilbert says.