Our Story
A Message From the Designer:
How do you spend your days?
Stressed all day at work and weighted down by the responsibilities of every other aspect of life the rest of the time?
My name is Ashleigh Mason, founder and designer of New Heritage Arts. And I designed NHA, the brand and its jewelry, to focus on all the things I was missing from my life that I valued.
I can recall as a young child watching with fascination as my grandmother and my mother would get dressed for work or for an evening out on the town. And while they both wore beautiful clothing; my favorite part was watching them select the jewelry that would complete their outfits. The jewelry was what made each outfit come alive. The clothing was the canvas, and the jewelry was the delicately applied paint that made the ensemble a masterpiece. It was from these moments that I first became interested in the design and making of jewelry. My grandmother was of the generation in which every occasion called for specific and appropriate attire. Back then, jewelry expressed your family’s status in life more your personal style in the society in which my grandmother is from. Hence, my grandmother’s story was one of duty, family, and wealth which limited her to jewelry to conservative and traditional styles. But I always have wondered what she would have chosen to wear if she had had the social freedoms and limitless options that we now embrace and take for granted.
The collections I make for New Heritage Arts are focused on original designs, meant to captivate and express oneself. While the beauty of the materials excites and inspires me to design pieces that highlight them (I love to work with gemstones, wood and resin) and remind the wearer of both infinite possibilities and the beauty we take for granted every day. NHA jewelry also emphasizes the skilled craftsmanship that can only come from being assembled by hand, mixed with a bit of nostalgia with the use of traditional techniques. And most importantly, NHA jewelry is designed with passion to enhance the unique story of each wearer. That passion comes from my never-ending desire to know more about jewelry and the innate urge to be creative and make something tangible with meaning.
Today, we have the freedom to let our individual styles tell the story of our lives, the way we would like it to be told. Bold and daring; simplistic or layered; natural or created, NHA jewelry is created to heighten the story you tell about yourself.
With Love,
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About the Designer 
Ashleigh Mason started designing jewelry as a teenager. At the age of 15, she launched her 1st company in partnership with her mother, Claudette. Craving more industry experience, she switched majors in college to fully pursue her dreams in jewelry. After 10 years of working in the industry in designer, merchandiser and buyer roles she launched New Heritage Arts so that she could return to her first love of designing modern classic, handmade jewelry. New Heritage Arts was created with love in 2012.