Hannah's Story
A family legacy - an island wilderness
Hannah has a distinctive design talent that has been passed down through generations of the Carnegie family, living on Cumberland Island in Georgia, USA.
As a young child, she was entirely immersed in the daily routine of island life with her cousins and mother, renowned jewelry designer Gogo Ferguson, and Gogo’s mother, the island’s matriarch Grandma Lucy Ferguson. The childhood contrast of life on a remote island and touring the world has gifted her with a specific awareness - laser-focused on the geometry and symmetry of nature; be it the myriad design patterns apparent in the insect kingdom, the veins running through an oak leaf, or the microscopic galaxies of organisms and cells.
It’s these awe-inspiring facets of nature that Hannah strives to
communicate through the medium of fine jewelry. She channels nature’s unique and exquisite natural forms and patterns in a way that inspires a reconnection with our natural surroundings. Celebrating nature while also raising awareness of conservation is central to her raison d’être.
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RAISED IN AN ENCHANTED WILDERNESS
Cumberland Island
The largest most undeveloped island on the east coast
1880, Hannah’s Great, Great, Grandfather Thomas Carnegie, younger brother of Andrew Carnegie, and his wife Lucy Coleman Carnegie bought Cumberland Island for their winter retreat. Thanks to Thomas and Lucy, the family has managed to keep the Island out of the hands of developers and in 1970, donated most of it back to the National Park Service, where it became a designated UNESCO biosphere.
To this day it remains the crown jewel of the Sea Island’s and the largest most undeveloped Island on the east coast of America. There are three major ecosystem regions. Along the western edge, there are large areas of salt marshes, and massive live oak trees covered with Spanish moss and palmetto plants at the edge of a dense maritime forest. Its most famous ecosystem is its beach, which stretches over 18 miles. Wherever you go, you walk in the footsteps of the island’s native Timucuan Indians, and early British and Spanish explorers. Hannah was raised and home-schooled there is proud and fortunate to still call it home.
THE FAMILY LEGACY
Andrew Carnegie
The founder of modern philanthropy
Hannah’s great, great, great uncle Andrew and brother Thomas Carnegie are the original rags to riches story, in 1835 they were born into poverty in Dunfermline, Scotland. By 1848 their parents sold all their belongings for tickets to the USA in the hope of a better life. Within twenty-five years, the brothers were leading the American steel industry and the expansion of the country’s railroad. They built the Carnegie Steel Corporation into the largest steel manufacturing company in the world.
During the last eighteen years of his life, Andrew gave away almost 90 per cent of his fortune to charities, foundations, and universities. His 1889 article “The Gospel of Wealth” called on the rich to use their wealth to improve society, and stimulated a wave of philanthropy.
Hannah and her extended family remain proud of their heritage and still congregate on Cumberland and in Maine, gathering around fires, sharing roasted oysters, passing down tales and wisdom from the previous six generations. In recognition of their combined conservation achievements, Hannah finally decided on using the family name for her own business.
EDUCATION & PHILANTHROPY
Environmental Awareness
Hannah and her mother, Gogo Ferguson, have been life-long supporters of the Georgia Department Of Natural Resources, an organization dedicated to raising awareness and support for the fragile ecosystems and rare, endangered species on the east coast of the United States. Following in the family’s tradition, Hannah is committed to endowing a percentage of her collections to foundations and initiatives focused on nature conservation and education.