Designers Melanie & Michele Bock (twins) have been designing unique jewelry & headpieces since 1999. They love to inject their sense of style into each custom-created work. Each piece is an artistic fusion of contemporary, feminine, smart and classic styling and has a flirty trend-conscious twist.

They enjoy collaborating with brides and friends in creating designs that suit their client's ideas and visions. Their sense of design balances the classic with the unique. Their collections are timeless; both transcending seasons and trends. They design predominantly in 14K gold, sterling silver, and gold-fill, which they use in combination with Swarovski crystals, colorful semi-precious stones, and freshwater pearls.

In their early years, Michele and Melanie loved playing with color and design, from giving makeovers to interior design. They also liked to explore their family’s wooded land. It is not surprising that they both chose to travel the world from South America, Europe and to Asia and pursued art. While traveling they made Japan their home for 3 years. The Japanese sense of design fascinated them. In Japan Michele met and married her husband, Hiroshi Matsuoka.

The Bock Twins studied Art at the University of Minnesota. In 1994, Michele graduated with magna cum laude with BS in Fine Art from Illinois State University, and opened a studio in Bloomington. Melanie graduated with a BA in Psychology from the University of Hawaii, Manoa and taught English as a second language.

In 1998, Michele developed a passion for making wire jewelry. In March of 1999, Michele launched EvesCircle Jewelry when she sold her first line of jewelry. In the summer of that year, Michele made a necklace that looked like a tiara, which sparked off an entire collection of dual heirlooms, the Bridal Veil Keepsake Necklace. With this collection, and the help of Melanie in the spring of 2000, EvesCircle Jewelry became EvesCircle (a circle of friends) Jewelry and Headpieces when they began working with clients nationwide via the Internet after they developed and uploaded their first website. EvesCircle also began selling statewide in the Illinois State Museum shops and specialty stores.

In 2005, Melanie and Michele changed their company name from EvesCircle to MelanieMichele - Jewelry to properly reflect the 'twin' work in their designs. Since early 2004, Melanie had begun devoting more of her time to making jewelry and developing collections. The business name EvesCircle was appropriate when Michele first started making jewelry, as Eve is her nickname. The name change is designed to express our co-commitment to making the best products for our clients/friends and together they will continue developing their design ideas and concepts.

Also in 2005, Michele was awarded the American Vision Award with Crystal Distinction by the Manufacturing Jewelers and Suppliers of America (MJSA). Click Here to see the Press Release.


Michele Bock & Melanie Bock - Artist Statements

"We make every piece of jewelry by hand in our Illinois studio and it is made with lots of love and care and we hope you feel beautiful, loved, and energized when wearing our jewelry."
- Michele & Melanie Bock

When asked to define MelanieMichele Jewelry, Michele Bock responds, "In our work, we explore line and color, and enjoy expressing ourselves with gems to achieve a simple elegant free-forming design that is unique, intricate and playful. We like to think of our jewelry as abstract and organic sculpture with color theory."

What we are most interested in is the process of conceptualizing new designs. For us, jewelry design is a puzzle to figure out. We get inspiration from just about everything but we especially like dress designs, shapes found in nature, all things linear or another type of art such as sculpture or even architecture. We have been influenced by sculptural works by Constantin Brancusi and Louise Bourgeois; paintings by Miro, Kaii Higashiyama, and Mark Rothko; jewelry by Neil Lane, Chaumet, Cartier, Arlene Fisch, and many more.

We are conceptual and minimalist artists at heart, we love making work people can relate to, but we also just like making something beautiful too. We have always been young at heart and we know that we are often just making jewelry for that “girl inside of us”. She loves love, whimsy, mystery, color and all things intricate and delicate.

We are optimistic women and we feel our work reflects that “happy go lucky” energy. We try to live life to the fullest; our work and interests like jewelry designing, cooking, decorating, and research are seamlessly integrated into the fabric of our lives with each creative journey feeding others.



Designing Group:

• Elizabeth Payne, who is Damselfly Studio, joined MelanieMichele this year. A 1979 cum laude graduate in Fashion Design from Endicott College, she comes to us with almost 20 years of experience in working with brides. Her experience includes designing couture wedding gowns, bridal shop consultant and buyer. Her headpiece comb collection is gorgeous and we thought they added just the right touch to round out our own collection. Damselfly Studio's jewelry line for brides and bridesmaids has also been a welcome addition.

• Melissa M. Plummer Carrington - Designer Stylist
Melissa joined MelanieMichele in the spring of 2003, she has been working closely with us on jewelry designs and headpieces. She brings her FIT education and experiences to the group, her work is always innovative and trend conscious.



Appreciation - We would like to thank the following people:

• Our family, friends and clients for their constant support and for taking the time to write those wonderfully touching letters: it is always a joy to open them. (click here to see some quotes)

• Our fabulous retailers have been the best promoters and believers in our product. We appreciate all that you are doing for us.

• Our retailer, Styles Down the Aisle. We would like to thank their team of expert makeup artists and stylists, and Their photographer, Michael Evangelista.

• Our Photographer, Robert E Handley, is wonderful.

• Our Model, Tammy, is the epitome of grace and beauty. She was one of our first brides and has proven to be an amazing signature model.

• Our Reiki Teacher, Madhavi Agnihotri, and her gifted daughter Manasi Bajwala.

• Michele wants to thank her husband for being so wonderful and taking such good care of her while she is immersed in her work.



Free Desktop Wallpaper - Need some color to liven up your computer desktop?
How about putting up some of Michele's own garden photos?



Chinese Poems by Hachiro Matsuoka (my father-in-law) at : http://www.hmatsuoka.com



See one of Michele's Color Theory Paintings