Symbolism in Everyday Jewelry: Peace, Crosses, Hearts, and What They Carry

Symbols on jewelry work because they say something without requiring you to. The risk is wearing one whose history you have not actually looked at.

The peace sign is younger than most people think

The circled symbol was designed in 1958 by Gerald Holtom for the British nuclear disarmament movement — the lines are semaphore for N and D. It crossed to the US anti-war movement within a decade. The two-finger hand gesture is older and originally meant victory.

Crosses and crucifixes are not interchangeable

A cross is the bare form. A crucifix includes the figure. In most Christian traditions the distinction is meaningful, and it is the single most common mistake in gift-giving. If you are buying for someone else, look at what they already wear.

Hearts carried a different meaning for most of their history

The stylized heart shape appears in medieval European manuscripts long before it meant romantic love — it was associated with memory, courage, and the seat of the will. That older reading is part of why heart pendants work as friendship and memorial pieces, not only romantic ones. We went deeper in heart-shaped stone pendants.

Personal symbols beat borrowed ones

• A blood type, a unit, a date — legible only to the people who need to read it.
• An initial in a typeface that means something to you.
• A shape from a place: a skyline, a bridge, a trail marker.

Wearing one symbol well

One symbolic piece at a time. Two competing symbols on the same chain cancel each other and read as decoration. Give the piece length and quiet metal around it.

Free archives for symbol research

• Smithsonian Open Access — millions of public-domain images and objects.
• The Met Open Access collection — historical jewelry and iconography.
• Public Domain Review — sourced essays on symbol history.

Symbol pieces from the studio are in the shop, and custom engraving is available here.