o describe the jewellery designer Daniela Villegas as a naturalist is like saying gold is precious. Well, yes — of course.

On a recent video call from her home in Beverly Hills, California, her hands alone tell the story. One finger sports a gold-and-lapis koala ring. The others are stacked with five chameleons—each symbolising a family member. On her left hand, more rings: a ruby-crowned coyote, an amethyst crab clutching a pearl, and a golden earthworm circling her wedding finger. “I feel naked without them,” she says.

Villegas is known for maximalist, one-of-a-kind jewels that honor nature’s smallest inhabitants. Bugs are her most frequent muses. “Just because you’re small doesn’t mean you’re not important,” she says. “Every big thing starts with a small step. These tiny beings remind me that everything has purpose.”

Daniela Villegas

That philosophy—treating insects as worthy of reverence—runs through her work. Her pieces are playful yet sophisticated, distinguished by their combination of technical details and unapologetically bold use of coloured stones, including crazy lace agates, Ethiopian opals, apple-green peridots, blush-pink sapphires, blue-violet tanzanites and lemon-coloured chrysoberyls (her personal favourite). Where some jewellers shy away from the creepy-crawly, Villegas leans in, finding beauty in beetle wings, cicada shells, salamanders, snakes—even weevils and walking sticks.

Born in Mexico City, Villegas studied fashion before turning to jewellery. In 2008 she moved to Los Angeles, where she found both creative freedom and her niche. That same year, she made her first insect jewel: a stag beetle necklace in 18k gold.

Big Manta Ray ring with a faceted opal and set with rainbow sapphires and opal eyes

The piece marked the beginning of a body of work that would attract an international clientele of collectors, celebrities and tastemakers. Her fans don’t just buy a single jewel; they often build entire “families” of creatures, acquiring both bold “adult” designs and daintier “baby” versions. Her scarab-inspired Khepri rings—miniature homages to the ancient Egyptian god of rebirth—have become a signature.

The way clients approach Villegas’s jewels mirrors her own collecting instincts. “Bug fairs excite me more than gem shows,” she admits. Her home, which she shares with her husband, furniture designer Sami Hayek (Salma’s brother), and their two young children, brims with thousands of insect specimens displayed on walls, tabletops and shelves, like a luxe natural history museum. Even the stuffed animals on display, like the armadillo she acquired at Deyrolle in Paris, wear their own jewels (in this case, a bracelet).

La Lagartija bracelet, a happy lizard crafted around a chrysocolla stone and decorated with tourmalines, amethysts, garnets, topaz, white diamonds and pearl feet. A rare piece.

Her audience is equally obsessive. “Most of my clients, they become collectors of Daniela Villegas,” she says. “You don’t know if they bought that piece five or 10 years ago.”

This year, Villegas expanded her menagerie to include sea life. In June, she debuted a 20-piece collection with the Marbella Club, the storied resort on Spain’s Costa del Sol. The line features manta rays, lizards and fish, rendered in 18k gold and set with an array of gems. On the video call, she wears an oversized agate fish pendant from the series. Its sculptural body is edged with tanzanites, amethysts and diamonds, the gold fin gleaming against the agate’s soft curves.

Kore Necklace made in 18k pink gold with bicolour tourmalines, powerful imperial topaz, peach and pistachio sapphires with pearls

“For me, going to the Marbella Club was like being in a beautiful garden in Cuernavaca,” she says, referring to the beloved capital of the Mexican state of Morelos, where the dry, cactus-strewn landscape has much in common with southern Spain. “The architecture, the vibe—sipping piña coladas and margaritas in June—it felt the same.”

Despite the technical rigour of her work, Villegas approaches design with childlike play. “When I sketch, I always make the eyes bigger,” she says. “It makes them friendlier. I don’t want to create something Gothic. To the contrary, I want to create something happy. To me, jewels are toys for adults.”

The rhino beetle ring made in 18k pink gold with sapphires and amethysts creating a gorgeous ombré surrounding a juicy triple colour tourmaline. The Nammu Ring, named after the goddess of the sea made in 18k pink gold with purple tourmaline and amethysts and holding a mystical chalcedony.

Her proportions lean toward the exaggerated, partly to accommodate more stones, partly to spark joy. “When you smile, your eyes open up,” she says. “I want that feeling in my pieces.” Beyond whimsy, Villegas’s creatures carry layers of symbolism. “Insects represent protection, rebirth, guidance,” she says. “Energetically, they have their own space, their own jobs, their own territory.”

That symbolic dimension deepens the appeal for collectors. A cicada may speak of transformation; a scarab, of resilience. Even her chameleon rings, worn stacked on one hand, are talismans of family and loyalty.

The Pushpavati Ring. A stag beetle made in 18k yellow gold with a watermelon tourmaline, pink tourmaline and sparkly pink and green sapphires

Villegas insists she never runs out of ideas. Gesturing toward the insect specimens that line her home, she laughs. “There’s enough material to make bugs for years,” she says. “Maybe not enough time in my life. We overlook them because they’re tiny. But they remind me: There’s space for everyone.”

It’s a sentiment that applies as much to humanity as it does to jewellery. By elevating creatures most people ignore—or avoid—Villegas underscores their value, while also highlighting her own singular place in the jewellery world: as the designer who makes bugs beautiful.

Electric eel wish container necklace in 18k yellow gold adorned with diamonds, multicolour sapphires in the body and emerald eyes with an amethyst carved by the master Michael Peuster