Israel: Yvel

I haven't had the time to finish up my posts on Israel! While we were in Jerusalem, we visited the Yvel Design Centre. If some of you remember, Yvel was the brand my mom and I saw at Jewelfest. When we heard that they were from Israel, we knew we had to pay a visit to them when we got there.

Yvel is an international jewellry brand owned by Orna and Isaac Levy. (See the similarity in the last name and the brand name?) The Yvel Design Centre is amazing! They have a whole area made for tours and a mini cinema where you can watch videos on their business. Something I really like about them is that they train 21 Ethopians every year to make jewellry and sell their handmade gold pieces in their showroom.

The Ethopians work normal hours (8 hours a day) and are given a small allowance while they are under Yvel's wing. After the training period, some of them are hired to work with Yvel. This social entrepreneurship model is truly inspiring!

After a short movie and quiz, we walked through their design centre to see the craftsmen at work. Orna and Isaac Levy would design the jewellry pieces and the craftsmen would create moulds and put them together. It's a very tedious and expensive process but the rewards are worth it. Yvel has won awards for their jewellry and is often seen on celebrities in Hollywood!

At Yvel, the whole team feels like a family, so they usually work based on trust. Employees are hardly checked for stealing (unlike Blood Diamond) but they do have to take a lie detection test once a year. I was so mesmerized by the tonnes of pearls and diamonds the craftsmen were sorting through... It was so beautiful :)

The Yvel showroom is huge, with jewellry made of all kinds of high quality stones. They even have a wine cellar where customers can enjoy a good glass of wine while shopping. 

You can find Yvel's creations in Tian Po Jewellry here. But of course, their range of collection is nothing like the one in Israel!