Maren’s Founding Story: The Path to Responsible Jewelry Design

I am Helge Maren, a trained jewelry designer and founder of Maren Jewellery.

I founded Maren Jewellery in 2020 with a clear vision: to revolutionize the jewelry industry and offer luxury jewelry for discerning customers, with a focus on transparency, responsible sourcing, and circular approaches. My idea is to create pieces of jewelry that are not only aesthetically appealing, but are also made with environmental and social considerations in mind. Every single piece of jewelry carries an emotional story and special meaning for me, which is why every Maren piece is crafted with great attention to detail, craftsmanship, and deep respect for people and nature.

As a child, I was already fascinated by the emotional significance that jewelry can convey and possess. It was clear to me early on that I wanted to become a jewelry designer, that I wanted to give people the joy and elegance that is so closely connected to a special piece of jewelry for me. Soon I began designing small pieces of jewelry myself and felt the joy it brought me. Even during my first internship at the age of 15 in a goldsmith's workshop, I was thrilled by how one can put a part of oneself into a piece of jewelry at the workbench. Whether it's love, time, or attention - somehow the pieces of jewelry that people forge always seem to fit them.

This passion accompanied me through my jewelry design studies in Pforzheim and my years in the jewelry industry, where I eventually worked as Head of Design for a renowned brand.

Throughout all these exciting years, I was able to immerse myself deeply in jewelry design, the materials, and the craftsmanship, and my love of jewelry kept growing stronger. By now, it is no longer just about creating a beautiful, suitable piece of jewelry for me, but about the work as a whole, made up of many small details, such as the origin of my materials or certain techniques that have existed for thousands of years. The more I engaged with jewelry, the stronger my passion grew.

In 2019, I took some time out and traveled across Norway in my VW bus all the way to the North Cape, returning via Finland. There, I listened to my inner voice and then founded Maren Jewellery at the beginning of 2020 to bring my vision of jewelry to life—jewelry that is not only aesthetically appealing, but also reflects my mindful values. Jewelry that supports women in being themselves while also being consciously designed and made with environmental and social considerations in mind.

I believe that every person has a responsibility toward our environment. Everyone can make sure in their own life that everything, wherever possible, is in harmony with nature. I have been exploring sustainability and a vegan lifestyle in my personal life for a very long time, and I find it especially exciting to apply that to jewelry design as well. I started with the question: What could sustainable luxury jewelry look like? Which materials do you use? How do you build a transparent and traceable supply chain? 

Mindfulness, responsibility, and transparency are therefore core values of my company, as also set out in my WeMind Initiative . Everything should and must be examined and thought through from every angle. This holistic commitment to responsibility and transparency has brought many challenges. What was particularly difficult for me was building a supply chain focused on transparency and traceable sourcing. It took quite a while before I found partners who not only share my values, but also my vision for responsibly made jewelry. For example, finding a refinery that works with recycled gold, tracks its emissions, and operates locally in Germany took many weeks of review and research. But I am happy that I finally found C. Hafner !

But because not only the materials used in the jewelry matter to me, but also my craft partners and even the packaging, every single step in the supply chain was a huge challenge. For example, my Paper Case jewelry boxes, which were not only newly developed by Gmund and me entirely from paper without plastic, but are also produced locally in Germany.

I’m glad I took the time and was able to find truly ideal partners who represent exactly what I want for Maren Jewellery. That’s why I can now proudly and transparently present all partners and the entire supply chain in my Sustainability Report.

At the end of 2020, I finally designed, created, and launched my very first collection, and I’m so happy to finally combine all my creativity with my passion for timeless design, responsibility, and transparency. It feels amazing to do exactly what I’m passionate about and to work with different producers who set high standards for transparency and responsibility.

So far, Maren Jewellery has been a truly impressive journey for me—one that is demanding, but also keeps feeling like a dream. It was especially meaningful to me that my design and business approach was recognized in 2022 with the German Design Award for outstanding design quality in the Excellent Product Design - Eco Design category and the Green Product Award. Passing the rigorous certifications for B Corporation and RJC also made me feel that everything at Maren Jewellery is moving in the right direction. 

I’m also so delighted that over the past few years, Maren has been featured in magazines such as Vogue, Elle, and Cosmopolitan, and that I even had the opportunity to film a documentary about sustainable jewellery with ZDF.

But the greatest success for me is that I’m gaining more and more wonderful new customers. Many come back to shop with me again and again, and it’s so lovely to be part of your jewellery journey! So a huge thank you for all your orders! 

My long-term goal at Maren Jewellery is a circular economy. I have already come closer to this goal through a number of measures, for example by using recycled precious metals and also avoiding plastic in my packaging. But of course I am continuing to work on it so that, in the future, I will no longer need any new materials at all and can continuously improve our environmental and social performance.

And I want to continue inspiring a shift in thinking, both in myself and in the sourcing process, and of course in you as well, by continuing to share knowledge about the practices of jewelry manufacturing and their impact on our environment. 

In this way, these impacts can be critically questioned and changes toward greater transparency and responsibility in the jewelry industry can be set in motion.

It would make me very happy if you would join me on my journey ahead and allow my jewelry to become part of your story.