Helen Ficalora Jewelry
Exquisite Jewelry and Personal Charms That Inspire Beauty, Love, and Peace
By Lucy Derby
Helen Ficalora Jewelry reflects the beauty and harmony of nature, while the style and essence behind the collection is “personal beautiful designs to accent anyone’s style.” Her unique and alluring collection of personal charms, chains, earring, rings and bracelets allows you to create your own signature necklace or stack rings and layer necklaces to suit your individual style. Her preferred materials of 14k yellow, white, or pink gold and diamond accents are the foundation of her classic and timeless pieces. Helen Ficalora Jewelry is unique from other jewelry designs because Helen creates designs that are from her vision. “We all have a unique perspective on life and I like to express parts of mine in my jewelry concepts. My mission is to create signature designs that inspire beauty love and peace,” she states. Helen Ficalora’s designs inspire beauty, love and peace.
Helen Ficalora Jewelry has been featured in numerous movies and television shows including 27 Dresses, the Proposal, Duplicity, Gossip Girl, Desperate Housewives, and many more. All of Hollywood’s biggest names are fans of her jewelry. To name a few, Uma Thurman, Reese Witherspoon, Sandra Bullock, Katie Holmes, Brooke Shields, Gwyneth Paltrow, Gisele Bundchen, with the list going on and on. Her charms with diamonds and words of positive energy are also extremely popular with mothers as they can personalize a “mom” necklace with words like “love” or “peace.” Helen has been designing jewelry for over a decade and still remains America’s sweetheart when it comes personalizing jewelry with various charms.
This talented designer, owner, creator, and entrepreneur successfully runs four retail stores, located in New York, Beverly Hills, Palm Beach, and Chicago. When you step into a Helen Ficalora 
boutique, you will surely feel that rise of excitement in waiting to discover what treasures await. All boutiques are sweetly decorated with crystal chandeliers and soft pink shades hanging from the ceilings, rich mahogany floors, subtle gold-tinted white walls and glass-topped display cabinets. Her signature magenta can be spotted in her rose gold pieces and design accents throughout the store. The sales associates are always ready and willing to provide you with a personalized shopping experience because the boutique is designed to ensure that each customer interacts with the collection in a very intimate fashion. Her stores also carry several donation pieces, each contributing individually to Ovarian Cancer Research, Breast Cancer Research, Project Sunshine, and Michael J. Fox Foundation. Helen says, “I try and do a lot of giving,” which is evident through her generous donations to P.S. Arts in Los Angeles and many school fundraisers.
Helen doubled majored in political science and psychology at Drew University. She went on to obtain a Masters degree and Certificate of Advanced Study in Psychophysical Movement at Springfield College. With a natural affinity for creativity as her parents were artists, Helen never thought she could be an artist and still make a living. Helen never had a formal education in art or design, but did study under a jewelry mentor who privately instructed her for a few years. She fondly recalls it as a wonderful time in which she began designing and selling jewelry, while expanding her metalsmithing skills. With her home studio already set up, having private instruction helped her tackle the tougher areas of jewelry making faster and more efficiently. Her focus on technique sets her apart as her jewelry is more than adornment as brings to life her philosophy of harmony with the environment. She developed her jewelry business while also managing and running her family beach motel in Montauk, where she met many people that she became friends with and who also helped her through her business.
In the beginning, Helen Ficalora Jewelry out started with the ring band collection and the angel collection. When she was unable to find an amazing wedding ring that she would love to have forever, she decided to create her own. From her rings, she is a fan of the Signet Ring for its weightiness, size, and shape. Hers has a logo and she wears it on her pinky, calling it her power ring to remind her to keep going when times get tough. Helen also adores the Pansy Ring with diamonds as it is beautiful and reminds her of spring and her mother. Helen began her angel collection because she wanted to make a beautiful angel. She loves angels and holds a special connection to them. Helen believed that the concept of the angelic realm should be represented by a beautiful woman, in addition to the cute cherubs that were the only angels available when she started her collection. She says, “The idea behind the angels is for them to be affirmations of something we need assistance with in our lives.” Because Helen is a “peace” person and tries to live a very peaceful existence personally on many levels, the Peace Angel holds a special place in her heart.
With earrings, the Small Hoop Earrings are simple, sexy and sparkly. Helen enjoys designing jewelry to make it work with the metal as she finds metalsmithing an amazing and challenging aspect of jewelry design. She has always been obsessed with jewelry and loves looking at everyone else’s jewelry. If she wants to wear something new, she simply makes it for herself. In addition, she loves making beautiful jewelry that is comfortable to wear and that can make people 
feel beautiful while wearing it. “I make jewelry to make people happy,” Helen shares. Our first featured Editor’s Pick is the Diamond Stacking Ring for its feminine, yet classic style. This ring is so easy to wear as an everyday piece as its delicate thin band holds a bezel set diamond. Lovely enough to wear alone, it is even more stunning to stack with rings in different carat sizes ($160 - $1,200 depending on carat size).
She loved her jewelry making class in high school, which naturally stemmed from her childhood of making jewelry out of natural objects like flowers, shells, and pine needles. She remembers making things out of homemade clay with her mother and turning it into jewelry and working with beads. Growing up in Montauk, Helen also spent much of her childhood by the Atlantic 
Ocean, collecting shells, sea glass and starfish, and climbing trees and running through fields of wildflowers. She was and continues to be inspired by nature and its elements or by beautiful images and textures. We selected the Dogwood Studs as are our favorite because these feminine and flowery earrings are perfect for everyday wear ($195). The splendid design of the dogwood flowers in 14K gold are detailed enough to showcase its glistening diamond center and is sure to be noticed.
Helen’s creations offer a seamless transition from day to night. One of her favorites and an Editor’s Pick are her Alphabet Charms for their simple, classic, and personal style. These are timeless reminders of affection as customers can choose different letters on a shimmering gold disc, with or without diamonds, making it a warm, personal experience. These alphabet charms are also a hit with her celebrity clientele (starting at $125 for 14 karat yellow gold). Giving her customers the freedom to select and choose different charms in making their own necklace, distinct and apart from everyone else, is part of the magic in visiting her store. The Diamond Charms and the spiral charm are also great as they bring in positive energy and sparkle with life. Many of her other charms feature a diamond center to add that extra glitter to your necklace. We selected the Baby Heart Charm with Diamond for its full puffy heart with a sparkling diamond center that looks great when paired with some alphabet charms.
Helen creates all designs herself with the assistance of some jewelers and others in finishing and making the pieces to her specifications. She does occasionally take special requests or do custom work as many of her pieces are made to order, involving specific selections of gold color and carat, type of stone, and engraving on signet rings and bracelets. Her business is built on the kindness of others all along the way, from her beginnings at the motel to meeting people in her stores. The strength behind her collection is that when someone receives her jewelry as a gift, they in turn want to give Helen Ficalora jewelry as a gift. Her collection is made in the United States and her chains are made in Italy. She refers to her support team of wonderful women as amazing in helping to sell her jewelry and caring about each customer’s experience.
Helen Ficalora Jewelry has also been featured in countless magazines including Harper's Bazaar, In Style, Glamour, Lucky, Cosmopolitan, and 
Real Simple. She is constantly adding new lines and pieces to he collection because she never stops creating new designs. Her newest collection is a line of “miniature charms” with over seventy different designs, from elephants and turtles to doves and bats (starting at $115). Helen wears all seventy of her miniature charms on one chain and always gets a lot of comments about them. She also recently launched a silver collection at Bloomingdale’s. Her pieces can also be purchased by mail order and online at www.helenficalora.com. For the future, she hopes to expand her line worldwide to touch more people in allowing them to accent their own style.
Helen has classic and timeless taste, as her favorite jewelry designers are Louis Comfort Tiffany and Elsa Peretti. Dividing her time between Montauk and Olympia on Puget Sound in the Pacific, she still loves to draw, paint water colors, and doodle. Helen is happily married to her wonderful 
husband and has two sons. As a woman who has found wisdom, she shares, “Follow your heart. Do what you love, be passionate so that everyday is a day well spent. If you live in love then you will have no regrets. Love is abundant so even if you give lots of love there is always more that you have to share. You can’t use up your love.” For the perfect special gift for the holidays, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, birthdays, or as a personal treat, visit her store or shop online at helenficalora.com
