The story starts the way a lot of good things start — with a love of the coast that runs so deep it stops feeling like a preference and starts feeling like a calling. The sounds, the rivers, the barrier islands, the offshore blue water beyond the Gulf Stream — this is not scenery to the people who grow up here. It is identity. It is home. And for the people behind Nautora, it was the only possible inspiration for a jewelry company worth building.
Nautora is based in Eastern North Carolina — in a small waterfront town. It sits at the edge of one of the most extraordinary coastal ecosystems in the world, within reach of the Outer Banks, the Pamlico Sound, the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, and the offshore waters where the Gulf Stream pushes north and the big fish run.
From our studio each design is built to the standard of something worth keeping for a lifetime and passing down to someone who will love it just as much. We use sterling silver, marine grade metals, genuine gemstones, and enameling techniques that have been the mark of the finest jewelry houses in the world for more than a century — the same Plique-a-jour and Basse-taille processes used by Faberge and Tiffany, applied to the subjects that matter most to us. Sportfish. Sea life. Lighthouses. The coastal creatures and coastal symbols that define a life lived near the water.
We are also the exclusive maker and seller of Guy Harvey Jewelry— a distinction we are proud of. Dr. Guy Harvey is the most celebrated marine wildlife artist alive, a marine biologist, a conservationist, and a man whose love of the ocean has produced some of the most extraordinary sport fish art ever made. When we render his Blue Marlin, his Sailfish, his Tarpon in sterling silver and enamel, we are translating decades of scientific knowledge and artistic mastery into a form you can wear every day and eventually leave to the person in your family who loves the water most.
That is the standard every piece we make is held to. Not trendy or fashion jewelry. Heirloom jewelry — made to last, made to mean something, and made by people who understand exactly why quality matters.
We believe that the best jewelry tells the truth about the person wearing it. That a Blue Marlin or Sea Turtle necklace on the right person is not decoration — it is their biography.
That is what we make. That is why we make it.
