Mountain Brook Village is now home to the new Ex Voto Vintage Jewelry showroom! Designer Elizabeth Adams hails from Montgomery, where her studio and original showroom remain, but she has recently relocated her family to Birmingham. Once home to a cigar shop and later Canterbury Carpets, the showroom is located on Canterbury Road in a building whose facade of limestone, copper pediment and interior stained wood casings are well suited as the backdrop for this vintage jewelry line.
Elizabeth has always had an eye for design and creativity, growing up surrounded by art and spending time in her best friend’s mother’s antique store and later studying architecture, then becoming an educator followed by a jewelry designer. She has always found inspiration in things of old, enjoying the patina that can only come with age.
As an infant, her father’s mentor gave her a locket with the handwritten blessing, “May your life be as beautiful as you are.” The lockets she creates for her limited edition line of Ex Voto can hold one of four blessing charms, just as her original locket did.
She began creating jewelry from vintage objects, such as pendants, keys, medals and lockets as a way of finding solace and healing after the death of her youngest child from a brain tumor. She found that creating one new piece from many old ones brought focus and healing. Friends began asking about her creations and her business has flourished ever since. As a way of giving back, a portion of each sale is donated to The Cure Starts Now Foundation for pediatric brain cancer research.
Ex Voto, which means an offering of gratitude, is the designer’s expression of art, vintage patina, mysterious history and gratitude to the Redeemer who has the power to make beauty from ashes. Elizabeth knows that “life may not always be easy, but it can be beautiful.” Combining vintage elements with diamonds, semi-precious stones, freshwater pearls, Swarovski crystals, premium leathers, sterling and gold-plated chain, the Ex Voto line is a collection of one-of-a-kind and limited edition treasures that are timeless, yet current suitable for all ages from mothers, daughters, brides looking for that something old or the perfect gift for the bridal attendants.
Ex Voto Vintage Jewelry is located at 2402 Canterbury Road and the showroom is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 205.538.7301.
