A jewelry designer and consultant since 1981, Ellen is one of the jewelry industry’s top experts in global markets.

Ellen is currently working with the International Trade Center out of Geneva Switzerland, coordinating efforts to empower Mexican jewelry designers, specifically women to improve their jewelry design businesses. The ITC is a joint agency of the World Trade Organization and The United Nations and acts as a development partner to improve business exports to the US.

Ellen combines her expertise in sterling and fashion costume jewelry with her goal of discovering the “true design essence” of each client. She translates that essence into a unique look authentic to each client – and to the client’s ultimate customer. “I believe every company has a true design essence, and my mission is to reveal it. What I do allows full expression of the spirit within the jewelry.”

Ellen’s past and present clients include Guess, Anne Klein, Guess Collection, Etienne Aigner, Catherine Stein, Napier, Marvella, Brighton, Rio Grande the Bell Group, Trifari, and Montana Silversmiths. Her designs have been sold successfully through many national retailers including QVC, Coldwater Creek, The Federated Department Stores, J Jill, and TJ Maxx among others.

After graduating magna cum laude from the Fashion Institute of Technology, Ellen joined Trifari, then the largest jewelry company in the world. Based in New York Ellen eventually branched out into the sterling market.

In the mid-1980s she moved to New Mexico, attracted by the burgeoning sterling industry in Albuquerque. Keeping one foot in each world, costume and sterling jewelry, Ellen continues to divide her time between New York and New Mexico, when she’s not on location for a client. “I’m equally drawn to the sophistication and stimulation of the city and the tranquil beauty of the high desert.”

Her versatility in styles, materials, geographies, production methods, international marketing and licensing fuels continuing global demand for Ellen’s expertise. She has worked internationally in Italy, The Philippines, Peru, South Korea, and China in addition to many states the U.S. “As a designer I love to analyze a client’s needs and formulate new design directions that benefit their existing production capabilities and marketing directions, while satisfying and expanding their customer base.”

Ellen’s stunning pieces created for clients selling through QVC deliver major hits. It’s typical for a single key item to bring in millions of dollars in sales.

For the past 20 years Ellen has designed sterling necklaces and bracelets for Gertrude Zachary in Albuquerque, working with Ms. Zachary’s native American silversmiths for sample making and production. Designing bracelets retailing for as much as $3000, Ellen offers Ms. Zachary high-end potential and style in the traditional western sterling market.

“I’m equally drawn to the sophistication and stimulation of the city and the tranquil beauty of the high desert.”

A leader in every aspect of jewelry design, Ellen also applies her expertise to licensing. She has assisted clients including Vendome and K and M Marketing to prepare licensee presentations for leading firms such as Coach and Michael Kors. Ellen contributes the foresight and guidance that enable her clients to garner their share of the rapidly expanding licensing opportunity.

From the early 1990s until 2008 Ellen owned Hoshoni in New York’s East Village. A high-end home furnishing and jewelry store, Hoshoni was best known for handmade, environmentally friendly products and inspired merchandising. The store’s fans included Julia Roberts, Carly Simon, Sheryl Crow, and Penny Marshall. Featured in magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar, New York magazine, In Style and Glamour, Hoshoni was a trendsetter admired for its cutting-edge beauty in home and lifestyle furnishings.

In all areas of jewelry design, Ellen’s top of mind goal for her clients is to develop products that are not only beautiful but salable and marketable as well. “I want my clients to have not only a smash hit from a sales standpoint, but an expanded creative range in their products.”