When I first named my business Prenoa, I didn’t fully understand how deeply that word would grow into the roots of what I do. It came from an instinct, a meditative whisper, a sense that what I was creating wasn’t just jewellery—but something with lineage, tenderness, and meaning that moved in both directions: past and future. Over time, I’ve come to see that the name holds far more than I ever intended. It has, in many ways, revealed itself to me.
The word Pre sits at the heart of Prenoa. Softly sounding, almost quiet, easy to overlook—but powerful when you stop and feel its weight. Pre means before. When spoken it summons the flames of history, memory, the stories that come first. It honours the steps already walked, the voices already spoken, the hands that touched something long before I ever did. And that, to me, is where the real magic begins.
Every coin I work with has a pre. It has been passed from hand to hand, fallen between floorboards, tucked into pockets, collected in jars, exchanged in moments that may have been long forgotten by those who lived them—but not by the coin itself. There’s something deeply humbling about that. To think that this small piece of metal has seen more than I ever could. That before I welcome it into our studio, or solder it into place, it has lived.
And so, I see myself as a custodian of that pre-history. I don’t erase it. I honour it. When I choose a coin that’s slightly worn, softly tarnished, with a nick on its edge or a dulled engraving—I don’t see damage. I see character. Evidence. Proof of presence. The pre is its soul.
There was also a Pre for me too. As a jeweller working with pearls, shells and sterling silver mainly, whilst teaching Art & Design to children and adults, I gathered my story professionally and creatively too, as the coins gathered theirs.
But the Pre in Prenoa isn’t just about the past. It’s also about what comes before becoming. Before a necklace is worn. Before a gift is given. Before a wedding day, a christening, an anniversary. The moments before something is made sacred. My workshop is a space of that sacred in-between—a pause between what was and what will be. That is where you come in. When you find us and share your stories, we feel into the narrative you give us and unite you with a coin that makes it manifest. The pause is a time to reflect and translate it into something new; like chapters of a book brought to life with illustrations.
And so, the jewellery becomes more than jewellery. It becomes a bridge. A story, still unfolding. A way for someone—maybe someone like you—to wear something that feels deeply connected. Not just to an object, or person but to a timeline. A lineage. A memory. That’s why I don’t mass produce. That’s why I gift wrap every piece as if it’s the first and only. That’s why I write notes and polish with care and look at each coin before I send it, and ask myself: who did you belong to, and where are you going next?
The Noa in Prenoa, for me, speaks of the now and the new. Of becoming. Of potential and presence and offering from this moment onwards. So when you bring those two parts together—Pre and Noa—you get something that carries both weight and lightness. A rooted beginning, and a blossoming future.
Prenoa is not just a brand. It’s a rhythm. A remembering. A way of saying: before this was yours, it was something else. And now, it becomes yours—not instead of what it was, as it is still that. And because it is still that and more, you want it to be yours.
And I think there’s something really beautiful about that.
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