There’s no mistaking a Mark Loren design, and after 41 years and hundreds of commissions, he keeps finding new ground. While his look is distinctive—defined by modern minimalism with a tradition-bucking asymmetry—he doesn’t follow a set formula.
Part of his sensibility traces to Robert Rauschenberg, the pioneering abstract expressionist who lived on Captiva and became a collaborator and influence for Mark. “One of the things he taught me is to take something ordinary in its normal context and put it into a different context, which will make it extraordinary,” he says.
Designs begin across the table. A client brings in a loose stone, a ring to be reworked or a memory, and Mark sketches out directions. Across his work, flat planes are set against organic forms, elements placed off-center and held in balance rather than mirrored. Raw-edged stones are fixed in place with spare lines of gold; delicate settings offset with bars, arcs or pivots that shift the weight of the piece. Color runs through the work, but not in matched sets—each element holds its own.
Photography by Anna Nguyen
mark loren jewelry works beyond convention gold ring
In one pendant, a faceted amethyst, composed of stacked triangular planes that recede inward, is counterweighted by a thin gold bar lined with diamonds. A ring sits on a wide, 14-karat gold band, topped with a sharply cut tanzanite set beside pavé diamonds that are tension-set.
For the 2022 American Gem Trade Association’s Spectrum & Cutting Edge Awards, he crafted a set of rose-tinted glasses for the Objects of Art category. The lenses were cut from faceted Russian tourmaline slices, left with uneven, angular edges. A slender gold arc, lined with pavé-set golden sapphires, holds the lenses in place across the front, while the temples shift the balance again, with a Laguna agate bead flanked by Brazilian green tourmaline and a rare, pear-shaped turquoise. “We are open to trying anything,” the jeweler says.
With his knack for recontextualizing materials, Mark has earned 10 recognitions from the Spectrum & Cutting Edge Awards. Last year, a pair of ombré gradient gold earrings featuring black Tahitian and golden South Sea pearls with marquise purple sapphires took home two honors.
Photography by Anna Nguyen
mark loren jewelry works beyond convention gem glasses
Mark won a 2022 American Gem Trade Association’s Spectrum & Cutting Edge Award for his rose-tinted glasses, made with Russian tourmaline, pavé-set golden sapphires, Laguna agate beads, Brazilian green tourmaline and a rare, pear-shaped turquoise.
“There’s never a time I wear a piece of his jewelry without getting a comment about how beautiful it is,” says Community Advisory Board member Sandy Stilwell Youngquist, a longtime client and friend.
Stones You Can’t Miss
The draw with his work goes beyond color or sparkle. The Fort Myers-based jeweler expands deeper than the Big Four family of diamonds, emeralds, rubies and sapphires, often focusing on stones that don’t announce their value: Russian white agate crystals with a milky, ethereal halo; Mexican purple opals with a galaxy-like depth; fossilized palm root from Indonesia, cross-sectioned to reveal a sunburst of amber and rust. “I’m looking for gems that most jewelers aren’t even aware of,” he says. After four decades, vendors who know his eye call when they’ve finished cutting something unusual, often sending it to him before anyone else.
Photography by Anna Nguyen
mark loren jewelry works beyond convention workspace
The designer’s gem curation extends well beyond the Big Four; he leverages the rare and unexpected to execute his artistic vision.
He pairs materials that don’t often meet (python skin from the Everglades with midnight black druzy agate; purple heartwood with man-made color-shifting Twilight) and looks past gemstones to center on objects with meaning. A button torn from a mother’s coat in an Auschwitz separation line became a platinum and diamond pendant. A missile launch button from a surplus fighter jet joystick became the centerpiece of a retirement ring for an Air Force officer. A piece of terracotta pottery picked up from the mud of the Via Sacra during a couple’s trip to Rome became a pendant the woman wears every day. “A lot of people in the industry forget it doesn’t have to be precious out of the ground to make it precious to someone,” he says. “And they get to tell the story about the piece they’re wearing.”
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Photography by Anna Nguyen
mark loren jewelry works beyond convention antique necklace
Pink sapphires, green sapphires and a Santa Marguerite teardrop aquamarine accent an Edo-period artifact. Mark repaired a 12th-century bronze cross with 14-karat yellow gold and pavé-set diamonds.
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Photography by Anna Nguyen
mark loren jewelry works beyond convention gem display
A Handcrafted Heritage
Mark is part of a dwindling subset of jewelers who produce their work by hand, rather than sketching designs and passing them off to fabricators. He sources the materials, designs around them and fabricates on site, carrying each piece from bench to finished setting in his Fort Myers studio, with a team of six goldsmiths, three of whom also set stones.
Clad in yellow-tinted protective glasses, he melts golden fragments over an open flame, reducing them to a workable form before they are rolled, hammered and forged into place. Much of the process remains physical—wire drawn out, surfaces shaped by hand—before the finer work begins.
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Photography by Anna Nguyen
mark loren jewelry works beyond convention bracelet up close
His Fort Myers studio blends modern and traditional craftsmanship. Working with a team of six, Mark melts golden fragments over an open flame, then rolls, hammers and forges them into shape. When precision is needed for the fine settings, he’ll use a laser welder.
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Photography by Anna Nguyen
mark loren jewelry works beyond convention metal melting
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Photography by Anna Nguyen
mark loren jewelry works beyond convention work in progress
Evoto
When precision demands it, he reaches for a laser welder. “Not only do we use torches like in the old days, but we also have the ability to use our lasers, which reduces the liability on gemstones,” he says. New tools are embraced. When the studio recently added a computerized laser engraver and cutter, Mark’s team started throwing ideas before they’d figured out how to run it. He doesn’t mind. “I’m glad you’re thinking about it creatively,” he told them. “That’s the purpose of it.”
He works through sketches and life-like digital renderings. For pieces that require fitting, a 3D printer produces a wax model so clients can try on the form before it’s cast in metal. Adjustments are made early, then refined again until the piece is just right. For Carly Schwartzel, the process began with a 20-carat blue zircon. “I went in with the stone and told him I wanted a wow piece,” she says. The final ring, a deep blue center stone framed by diamonds in a pillow setting, is one she reserves for formal events. “You know you’re wearing something that’s personal,” she says.
The Man, Himself
Perhaps the most distinctive thread running through Mark’s work is the man himself. His openness and creativity come through in every design.
Born in Chicago, Mark turned down a Bausch + Lomb scholarship for eye surgery and shifted to turn his passion for jewelry into a career, enrolling in a trade school his father had founded.
He says, ‘yes,’ when others would hesitate. In 1984, Robert Rauschenberg needed a jeweler to drill a hole through a rough ruby and suspend it on 24-karat gold wire as a gift for “a friend.” Mark spent a week, burned through 20 diamond drills and drove the finished piece out to the artist’s home. Rauschenberg looked at it and said, “The Dalai Lama’s gonna love this.”
Friends, such as Sandy and designer and fellow CAB member Dwayne Bergmann, say you can feel his earnest energy when he enters a room. “He doesn’t need to fill every second of silence with meaningless words,” Dwayne says. When he compliments you, he means it, Sandy adds.
Photography by Anna Nguyen
mark loren jewelry works beyond convention designer in studio
Mark’s impact on the community has as much to do with who he is as what he creates. Friends and customers describe him as trustworthy, bold and generous, a prolific philanthropist unafraid of a challenge, whether posed by a cloister of nuns seeking help after a hurricane or Robert Rauschenberg.
Generosity has been steady in his practice for four decades, with dozens of local charities receiving donated experiences and custom pieces to auction off, including Pace Center for Girls, Lee, Special Equestrians, Inc. and the Bobby Nichols-Fiddlesticks Charity Foundation, where he donates a custom piece annually.
After Hurricane Ian corroded the metal reliquaries at Fort Myers’ Church of the Ascension, Mark offered his services. Taking the pieces apart risked compromising their sanctity, so he worked carefully, cleaning the metal, glass and fabric while leaving the wax seals intact. “It’s a bit like defusing a bomb,” he says.
A few cloistered nuns made a rare trip to collect restored reliquaries in person. “In the jewelry business, everyone thinks it’s about the sparkly stuff. It’s really not. It’s about the people.”