Nadira has been fascinated since she was a little girl with the beauty and magical properties jewellery possesses.
Nadira Jagan-Brancier was born in Georgetown, Guyana, South America. Her parents formed the first stable political party in the then British Guiana and led the struggle for Independence from Great Britain. Both her father Cheddi Jagan and mother Janet Jagan were former Presidents of Guyana who dedicated their lives to their country for over 50 years.
It is interesting to note that her great grandfather on her mother's side, an immigrant from Romania to the USA, was a jeweller in Chicago for over half a century.
Inspired by her mother's jewellery, she would spend countless hours creating unique one of a kind pieces from copper wire, string, and colourful cords, enhanced by vibrant coloured seeds, shells, and feathers all of which were from her tropical back yard. With her mother's encouragement she pursued her passion for creating jewellery and apprenticed with a prominent Georgetown jeweller. Later she also apprenticed with a Dutch jeweller Johann Bakker in Los Angeles. She completed her Jewellery Arts diploma from the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) in Southern California and worked for some of Southern California's finest jewellers.
It's during her time at GIA that Nadira met Mark Brancier, the son and grandson of Canadian jewellers who had a jewellery store in Canada. In 1982 they decided to get married and moved to Milton, Ontario, Canada to join Mark's parents in their family jewellery business. She has two wonderful children, Alex and Natasha.
When Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip paid a State visit to Guyana, the State's official gift to Queen Elizabeth was a gorgeous jewelled pendant crafted and designed by Nadira, using the Amerindian (indigenous people) motif for "woman."
Since the death of her parents, Nadira devotes part of her time to keeping their memory alive and has edited and published five books, two of which she created to honour her father’s and mother’s life, another, a newly edited version of Cheddi Jagan's "West on Trial" and one promoting his vision of a New Global Human Order. She has also published a book of her mother's children's stories. She created and maintains a website dedicated to her parents at http://jagan.org.
She also helped establish the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre, which holds and records Dr. & Mrs. Jagan's voluminous writings, correspondence and is a recognized source for research on Guyana's history for the period in which her parents dominated the political life of Guyana.
Nadira travels around to find beautiful, unusual high-quality gemstones in all colours and shapes and then designs eye-catching and original jewellery that enhances the colour and beauty of each stone. Blending the influence of nature with expert craftsmanship, each piece of her hand-made one-of-a-kind jewellery tells its own exciting story.
Nadira along with her son, Alex were selected as finalists in the International Bench Jewelers 4th Annual Passion Awards Design Competition with their ametrine and diamond ring (photo top of page) on April 27, 2007.
click here to see more of Nadira's collection
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