LONDON — Daphine, the artfully elegant jewelry brand, wants to go out on a high and will be closing the business by the end of the year.

The brand’s founders Damasia Ball and Philippine de Follin set up the business in 2018 and have focused on producing small quantities; 18-karat gold laid over recycled brass and biodegradable packaging with accessible price points. Each item from the brand is certified by the Responsible Jewellery Council.

“It wasn’t an easy decision to make, but when we started the brand, we never thought it could get to the size and scale that it did. As our personal lives have evolved with kids, marriage and Philippine moving back to Paris, we’ve realized that what we enjoy doing most is building brands, but the whole creative aspect is put to a side when you’re running a business,” said Ball in an interview with de Follin.

The pair met 12 years ago in New York City and had an instantaneous attraction to each other, but the idea to go into business didn’t start until they both moved to London and Ball was already working in the jewelry industry, while de Follin was working directly with a jewelry designer.

When Ball and de Follin locked heads together, it was to create jewelry that they saw growing up on their mothers and grandmothers.

“A tradition in my family is that girls would be gifted gold bangles throughout generations for birthdays and anniversaries, but when it came to my moments, the cost of gold was so expensive that these heirlooms you want to have and pass down were just so unattainable,” said de Follin.

All of Daphine’s recycled brass is sourced from Jaipur in India. The founders would visit their suppliers twice a year and send in their designs digitally.

The brand’s largest market to date is the U.K., where they grew immensely with organic support from the influencer community. Daphine’s second biggest market is France and in the last year and a half they were seeing growth from the U.S.

“We want to close on a high and I don’t know why, but in the entrepreneurial world closing is seen as a failure, whereas in any other career, you get the itch to do something different and that’s where we’re at,” said Ball, adding that Daphine has put all of its stock on sale online.

Starting a business together has been a learning curve for Ball and de Follin, where they dived into sales, production and public relations.

De Follin’s biggest lesson in the seven years of running Daphine is to never compromise. “In anything you do, whether it’s in the marketing department or office hires, you’ve got to be a hundred percent sure about it,” she said.

Ball added that for her it’s to evaluate business and personal goals early on rather than saving that thought for five years down the line.

A big moment for the brand was getting their jewelry placed on celebrities such as Beyoncé Knowles-Carter and Bella Hadid, which helped scale the brand’s presence.

“Since we launched the brand to now, there have been a lot of economical and political issues that have gotten in the way, from the pandemic, Brexit to Matches Fashion going under administration and leaving us with unpaid invoices,” said Ball.

The decision to close down Daphine after seven years feels mystical to Ball and de Follin as the number seven is an indicator of growth and closing out a chapter that’s about to end.