Our Story
GUILD & GODDESS
Two Countries. One Belief. A Thousand Years of Craft.
The story of how a love for history became a brand handcrafted in Nepal
WHERE IT BEGAN
The idea was simple, and like most good ideas, it came from a conversation. Two people from different corners of the world — one from Nepal, one from Germany — with one thing deeply in common: a love for history. Not history as a subject, but history as a living thing. The stories of people who shaped the world, often against impossible odds, and were remembered for it.
One evening the question came up: why does the jewellery world celebrate beauty, but almost never celebrate the women behind it? Not the queens, the artists, the empresses. Not the women who changed civilisations with their intellect, their defiance, their refusal to be forgotten. We couldn't find jewellery that told their stories. So we decided to make it.
FOUNDERS
Founded in Nepal, connected to the world
A Bridge Between Two Worlds
Guild & Goddess was founded by Chandani Shrestha, who grew up in Nepal surrounded by a culture where art is inseparable from daily life, and her partner Maximilian Von Vaerst, who came to Nepal and saw something that stopped him — a living craft tradition that Europe had largely left behind.
When he first walked through the metalworking lanes of the Kathmandu Valley, he saw artisans shaping brass by hand, setting stones one by one, producing work of extraordinary precision with nothing but traditional tools and inherited skill. He had read about craftsmanship. But he had never seen it still breathing like this.
Together, the idea became a brand: earrings inspired by the most powerful women in history, handcrafted by the skilled artisans in Nepal. A connection between Nepal and Germany. Between the ancient and the contemporary. Between the women of the past and the women of today.
THE IDEA
Jewellery That Carries a Legacy
Every Guild & Goddess collection begins with a woman from history.
Not a goddess in the mythological sense — but in the truest sense. A woman whose strength, vision, and refusal to be ordinary were so powerful that history could not erase her, no matter how hard it tried.
Cleopatra, who mastered nine languages and outmanoeuvred the Roman Empire at its peak. Theodora, who rose from the streets to the Byzantine throne and rewrote the laws of her era. Frida Kahlo, who transformed a lifetime of physical pain and personal loss into art the world could not ignore.
These women were not waiting for permission. And the women who wear jewellery today — building careers, raising families, navigating the world on their own terms — deserve pieces that reflect that same energy.
Each collection is a goddess. Each earring is her story. Each woman who wears it carries that legacy forward.
SHE CONQUERS FEAR
SHE REMAINS
SHE CREATES CHANGE
THE CRAFT
Made by Hand. Every Single One.
Nepal's artisan communities have been shaping metal and setting stone for centuries. This is not a tradition that has been revived or repackaged — it has never stopped. In the workshops of the Kathmandu valley, the same techniques practised generations ago are still used today, passed down through families who have made this their life's work.
Every Guild & Goddess earring is handcrafted here. The brass is cut, shaped, and hammer-textured by hand. Stones are individually placed and set by eye, not machine. Each piece passes through multiple pairs of skilled hands before it is complete.
THE DETAIL
The Mark of Human Hands
Because every piece is made by hand, no two Guild & Goddess earrings are ever exactly identical. The subtle variations in texture, the slight differences in the hammer marks, the individual character of each stone — these are not imperfections.
They are the signatures of the people who made them.
In a world flooded with mass-produced jewellery pressed from moulds in factories, we believe this difference is not a limitation. It is the entire point.
THE FINISH
Packaged with the Same Care
Every Guild & Goddess piece is packaged in lokta paper — a traditional Nepalese material made from renewable Himalayan plant fibres by women-led artisan groups. The packaging is not an afterthought. It is an extension of the same belief that runs through everything we make: that the details matter, that the people behind them matter, and that beautiful things deserve to be treated beautifully from beginning to end.
WHAT WE BELIEVE
MADE BY HAND
Every piece is individually handcrafted by skilled artisans in Nepal using metalworking traditions passed down through generations. No moulds. No machines. No shortcuts.
WORN WITH MEANING
Each collection is inspired by a legendary woman whose strength and story deserve to be carried forward. When you wear Guild & Goddess, you are wearing more than jewellery. You are wearing her legacy.
BUILT WITH CONSCIENCE
From lab-grown stones to lokta paper packaging made by women-led groups in Nepal, every decision is made with care for the people and communities behind it.
Every Legend Starts Somewhere.
Guild & Goddess is a young brand. We have three goddesses so far, and many more whose stories are waiting to be told. We are growing carefully, the way the best things always grow — with attention, intention, and a refusal to rush what deserves to take time.
But the belief that started all of this has never changed. Jewellery should mean something. The woman who wears it should feel something when she puts it on. And the hands that made it should be known, valued, and heard. If that is the kind of jewellery you have been looking for —
Welcome to the Guild