Jenny Bird’s plated jewellery is the real deal.

If Jenny Bird’s art-deco-inspired La Bouche and La Vue pins appear whimsical, the Toronto-based designer is not. She’s refreshingly honest and a true straight shooter when talking about the namesake jewellery line she founded in 2008. She explains how the pieces are cast in brass and then plated in 14-karat gold or sterling silver at her factory in China, which she has visited. At $60 and $65, the pins are reasonably priced—a decision she describes as being about “the democracy of the brand and just being fair; it’s possible to make a good living and have beautiful, quality products.” Another Jenny Bird truth is this: Affordable jewellery can be precious, and it should be to the person wearing it. “We [gold-]plate our pieces so that people will take care of them,” she says. “They can be heirlooms. You don’t have to have solid-gold heirlooms; you just have to take care of them.” Truth.