Art nouveau jewellery represented a stark contrast from the vast majority of jewellery that had been created in the previous few centuries. Prominent in the 1890s and early 1900s, this form of jewellery represented a basic but large shift of the entire focus of jewellery. At the time of its spread, jewellery was more focused on gemstones and diamonds. Everything else played more of a background and supporting role to these expensive centerpieces.

But with art nouveau jewellery, much more style, life and focus was given to the design of sculpted gold, glass and other materials. Much of the influence for this was looking back to the Renaissance period, which showcased great deals of intricately sculpted gold jewellery pieces and other similar themes. Bright colors, flowing lines, curved shapes and above all else focus and attention paid to the design itself, the engravings, the lines, the texture and inherent beauty and so forth.

It was this surface decoration of art nouveau jewellery that was most important. Japanese artworks, the symbolist movement and more also influenced art nouveau. Flowing lines, asymmetrical shapes and designs, sometimes fantastical images and themes and more have all come to fall into the world of art nouveau. Many different materials were used and many different artists became famous for their beautiful and intricate art nouveau pieces.

The famous glassworker Rene Lalique was one of the most prominent, well known and respected creators of art nouveau jewellery. His style came to represent the creativity, beauty and changing themes and trends of this entire period. He incorporated themes and images from popular Japanese artwork and jewellery and focused on nature and natural influences such as plants, animals and insects. He helped to shift focus away from specific, expensive materials and onto the design itself.

Lucien Gaillard was another very prominent creator and designer of art nouveau jewellery. He focused on the usage of horn as his primary material and displayed strong Japanese influences. The presence of nature in his pieces was truly omnipresent, and almost all of his works were either directly based on insects or plant life or incorporated themes, lines and designs from them.

Georges Fouquet is another of the most famous art nouveau jewellery designers. He used lots of bright colors and showed much of the same Eastern and natural influences as the other prominent artists and designers mentioned. He commonly used both onyx and pearls, along with gold and a variety of other materials as well. While he would later become known for his work with art deco work as well, his art nouveau jewellery was prominent and he used many geometric shapes and lines in addition to the above techniques.

Art nouveau jewellery is certainly still popular today and the beautiful, stylized pieces can usually be relatively easily distinguished from pieces created during preceding and following periods. The influence of art nouveau certainly can be seen in its direct descendent art deco, and jewelry pieces in this style are highly sought after by collectors today.