Nina Berenato Jewelry and More Artful Pieces Available During Making It Together Auction

Jewelry designer and metalsmith Nina Berenato has found tremendous success over the years.

Modern, handmade and 100 percent sustainable, her collection has been featured in renowned fashion magazines including Vogue and Cosmopolitan. The biggest celebrities in the world admire her work. Berenato even designed custom jewelry for Beyoncé’s music video for “Spirit,” a song from the live-action movie “The Lion King.”

But as the coronavirus continued to spread across the U.S., Berenato says her female-driven team and business quickly started to feel the impact.

Now, her storefront in the Domain NORTHSIDE, a studio where she makes all her jewelry and leads design workshops, is closed and has just been denied aid from the Paycheck Protection Program.

“It’s a pretty big hit for us,” says Berenato. “And it got me thinking, if I’m dealing with this and I’m a pretty large business, really small independent makers are suffering the same way.”

Always striving to help women feel powerful, beautiful and capable of anything, Berenato wondered how she could make a difference and support small, women-owned businesses who, like herself, can’t receive government funding and are struggling to keep operations going.

“If we’re not going to get it the traditional way, then we’ll come up with some creative way to make it happen,” says Berenato.

On Saturday, April 18, Nina Berenato Jewelry will launch the “Making It Together Auction,” a 24-hour online auction that will feature one-of-a-kind and limited-edition work from over 70 Texas-based female artists, makers and small business owners.

The event will feature pieces ranging from ceramics, leather, jewelry, art, fashion and home goods. Many of the pieces, especially the artwork, were created during the coronavirus pandemic.

“I really like to buy pieces when I’m in a specific place mentally or when I’m traveling, and I want to remember a memory,” says Berenato. “So, I think this could be a really positive symbol for people to have in their life of a time when they really got through something tough, and it turned it into something positive.”

All of the proceeds from the auction will go directly back to the creative woman or women who made the piece. Plus, Berenato will be auctioning off her Grid Necklace, a limited-edition, architectural-style piece that is not part of her current collection.

Berenato’s hope for the auction is to help bring joy and togetherness through art.

“We love art, and we love our creators so much that I think it’s going to give the people that receive the money, the makers who receive the support, so much happiness,” says Berenato. “But I think it will also give the women that are able to show up and support these other women the same degree of happiness. So, I’m just hoping for an overall vibe of happiness.”

Access to the “Making It Together Auction” will begin on April 18 at ninaberenato.com.