About Joseph Brooks

 


Joseph Brooks“Sculptural, flamboyant and butch, Joseph Brooks makes the most beautifully crafted manjewelry in the world.”

Simon Doonan - Barneys New York Creative Ambassador

The jewelry of Joseph Brooks embodies sensuality and strength, handcraft and raw beauty, the bedrock and punk rock.  With an interest in stone properties and energies, from tourmaline to spirit quartz to black onyx, every piece in his extensive line highlights the true essence of each handpicked stone. Drawn initially to American turquoise which is difficult to find in a world of mostly fake and dyed stones. He finally located a mine in northern Arizona whose owners have been operating and producing spectacular turquoise since 1962. These stones inspired Joseph to begin designing a jewelry collection featuring this signature Southwest stone. 

The collection has grown over time and now including over 70 different natural un-dyed gems and crystals.

Before Joseph Brooks was cutting turquoise into pyramid studs and water buffalo bone and quartz crystal into chunky skulls, the Hollywood-based jewelry designer had a hand in transforming the alternative music scene, from being the first to showcase such early acts as U2, Depeche Mode, The Cure and Culture Club in the U.S. to getting Guns N Roses signed and introducing goth, electronica, and other dance music to the American underground. Joseph’s seminal music shop, Vinyl Fetish, which he owned from 1980-1986, drew music enthusiasts who would line up to meet Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bauhaus, U2, The Damned, Duran Duran, the Smiths and many other British bands on their first American tours. During this time he also had a popular weekly import record radio show on the once groundbreaking KROQ.

In some way, this new pursuit is not new at all. As a boy growing up in Far Rockaway, New York, Joseph would spend hours studying rocks, minerals and shells at the American Museum of Natural History, and carefully gather and label specimens for his personal collection. Being a devoted international birdwatcher has brought him from Patagonia to the Amazon , the Andes to the Himalayas, Sumatra to Papua New Guinea with the hopes of spotting yet another rare species. 

All of these travels have also been another way in which Joseph has found gem treasures like sapphires in Sri Lanka , banded agates in Java, prayer beads on the Tibetan plateau and fossils in Madagascar.

His love of ornithology is revealed on the tiny JB medallion that dangles off his individually crafted bracelets and necklaces,or stamped on his belts and rings.

Joseph Brooks Jewelry is collected by known personalities such as Justin Timberlake (draped in two turquoise necklaces on the cover of Rolling Stone), Kate Hudson, Ke$ha,  Steven Tyler,  Adam Lambert, Randy Jackson, Britney Spears, Kate Mara, Camilla Belle , Dhani Harrison, Joe Jonas,  John Mayer, Michael Stipe,  Sandra Bullock, Seal,  Morrissey, Samuel Jackson, Ben Harper, Lenny Kravitz,  Siouxsie Sioux, Adam Levine, Diane von Furstenberg, stylist/costume designer Arianne Philips and includes custom work for Madonna.