My Story

I’ve been drawing and creating for as long as I can remember. Jewellery eventually became the way I could bring together everything I love. Art, gemstones, words and the stories behind them.

Hand-drawn jewellery sketches beside a finished gold gemstone ring designed by Design Bay Jewellery
Nadine Naumov, jewellery designer and founder of Design Bay Jewellery

It Started With Two Words

I’ve always believed that words can stay with us.

I’ve always loved quotes and how just a few words can mean so much. 

When I was 17, my mum gave me an inspirational poem called Don’t Quit. I kept it, and its words became something I returned to whenever things were difficult or I needed a reminder to keep going.

Looking back, I think that poem had a much bigger influence on me than I realised at the time.

I had always been creative. As a child I was constantly drawing in notebooks and making things. But that little piece of paper taught me something else: something doesn’t have to be elaborate to hold great meaning. Sometimes a few words are enough.

Before Design Bay

Art came first for me. Jewellery came later.

I completed a Master of Visual Arts at Sydney University, followed by Gemmology One, Certificate III in Jewellery Manufacture and a Certificate II in Design Fundamentals.

I began my career as an apprentice jeweller before finding my own direction as a designer and artist. Along the way, I received a jewellery design award, had an artwork acquired by JTA Australia, and another featured on the cover of an international medical journal.

But I still felt there was something more I wanted to create. I just didn’t know what it was yet.

Nubilis

Queen of Gems Jewellery Design Award winner, 2009

Tree of Life

Cover artwork, Epilepsy & Behavior, Volume 11, Number 2, September 2007

Facet

2006, pen on paper, 21.0 × 14.8cm, JTA Australia Collection

Then the Idea Came

A few years later, I was at a meditation retreat in Blackheath in the Blue Mountains when an idea came to me: what if I created rings with meaningful words inscribed inside them?

I thought back to the Don’t Quit poem my mum had given me and how those words had stayed with me.

I loved the idea of creating jewellery that could do the same. Something beautiful and personal, with words you could carry with you every day. 

That idea became Design Bay Jewellery.

Blackheath, New South Wales, where the idea for Design Bay Jewellery began.

What I Love About Designing Rings

Design Bay has evolved since that first idea, but the reason behind it hasn’t.

When a woman comes to me, I get to know her story first. Sometimes she’s celebrating something she worked incredibly hard for. Sometimes she’s come through a difficult chapter. She might be becoming a mum, starting again, honouring someone she loves or simply deciding that this is something she wants to do for herself.

Then we find the gemstone, design the ring and choose the words that belong inside it.

I’ve had the privilege of doing this with some remarkable women over the years, but what I love most is that every story is different. And when the ring is finished, its meaning belongs entirely to the woman wearing it. 

Custom gold ring with green gemstone and hidden TRUST inscription by Design Bay Jewellery
Custom gemstone ring presented in a Design Bay Jewellery ring box

Now I’d Love to Hear Your Story

If you’ve been thinking about creating a ring for yourself, tell me what’s behind it. You don’t need to know what the ring should look like yet.

That’s something we can work out together.

 

    I reply personally within 1–2 business days. Custom rings start from $3,000.