OUR STORY
1994
THE BEGINNING
Bloodline Design began in 1994 in the dining room of a one-bedroom apartment at 14th and Granville in Vancouver.
Malcolm and Andrea shared the apartment with their first son, Eben. The polishing machine was an electric drill. A shop vac hung out the second-storey window to collect dust.
It wasn't much of a studio.
It was the beginning of Bloodline.
BEFORE BLOODLINE
Malcolm Norman didn't take a conventional route to jewelry.
Growing up in New Brunswick, school wasn't really his thing. At thirteen, he was tying Atlantic salmon flies for the rivers he spent his time around. By seventeen, he had opened an action-sports store and was designing apparel and shaping windsurf boards.
After high school came a short-lived attempt at university, followed by a $95 Greyhound ticket across America. Malcolm eventually landed in Maui, where he lived on the beach and worked for a fisherman.
Back in Canada, his friendship with Tom Sims led to work with Sims Snowboards in marketing, design and brand management. For several years Malcolm travelled extensively through the action-sports industry, developing his eye for design, photography and branding.
Travelling through Europe, he found himself drawn to antique jewelry, old architecture and the carved metalwork he encountered along the way.
Long before Bloodline existed, the influences were already there..
MALCOLM + ANDREA
In 1992, Malcolm met Andrea on a Saturday morning at Kits Beach in Vancouver.
Not long afterward, Andrea bought him several rings. When Malcolm took them to a jeweler to be resized, it wasn't the rings that held his attention. It was the bench — the anvils, torches and tools of the trade.
Something clicked.
Malcolm left his corporate job and apprenticed at a Vancouver casting house, learning from jewelers and carvers throughout the Pacific Northwest. He worked in casting by day and taught himself wax carving and metal fabrication at night.
They were lean years. Odd jobs paid the rent while Malcolm's own design language slowly began to take shape.
FINDING THE BLOODLINE
One day, while looking through a book at the Vancouver Public Library, Malcolm came across a photograph of a carved doorway at Ely Cathedral in England.
The centuries-old carving was credited to “The Normans.”
Malcolm's last name is Norman.
Even more remarkably, the patterns in the carving bore an extraordinary resemblance to those already emerging in his own wax work.
The coincidence was impossible to ignore.
Soon after, Bloodline Design had its name.
In 1994, the name was officially registered and the first Bloodline collection was taken to stores around Vancouver.
Every store bought it.
1999
FAMILY BUSINESS
The business grew quickly.
Bloodline expanded its studio and staff, signed with a New York showroom and began working with sales representatives in Toronto, Los Angeles and Paris. The jewelry found its way into stores internationally, from independent boutiques to larger retailers.
But at home, something even bigger was happening.
In 1999, Malcolm and Andrea welcomed identical triplet sons — Broden, Kael and Dace — joining their older brother, Eben. The family moved into a house in Kitsilano and converted the basement into a studio.
Bloodline was growing.
So was the family.
GROWING — AND PULLING BACK
The early years weren't a straight line upward.
A major account went bankrupt and nearly took the young company with it. Suppliers and devoted customers helped Bloodline through it, but the experience changed Malcolm and Andrea's thinking about what they were building and why.
The jewelry had become part of people's lives — worn to mark milestones, celebrations and moments that mattered. At the same time, Malcolm was travelling constantly while four boys were growing up at home.
So they made a decision that wasn't particularly fashionable in business.
They made Bloodline smaller.
The company continued, relationships with key boutiques remained, and custom and wardrobe work grew. But Malcolm and Andrea chose to build the business around their family rather than the other way around.
The family was more important.
THE NEXT GENERATION
Through the years, Bloodline continued quietly.
Relationships with boutiques and craftspeople grew, custom work expanded, and Bloodline pieces appeared in film, television and on musicians and other well-known clients. Much of that happened without changing the way the jewelry itself was made.
Today, Bloodline remains family-owned, and a second generation is becoming part of the company.
More than three decades after it began at a dining-room table, our jewelry is still designed, carved, cast and finished in Vancouver.
The studio is bigger now.
The tools are better.
The principles haven't changed.
Past. Present. Bloodline.
1994
THE BEGINNING
Bloodline Design began in 1994 in the dining room of a one-bedroom apartment at 14th and Granville in Vancouver.
Malcolm and Andrea shared the apartment with their first son, Eben. The polishing machine was an electric drill. A shop vac hung out the second-storey window to collect dust.
It wasn't much of a studio.
It was the beginning of Bloodline.
BEFORE BLOODLINE
Malcolm Norman didn't take a conventional route to jewelry.
Growing up in New Brunswick, school wasn't really his thing. At thirteen, he was tying Atlantic salmon flies for the rivers he spent his time around. By seventeen, he had opened an action-sports store and was designing apparel and shaping windsurf boards.
After high school came a short-lived attempt at university, followed by a $95 Greyhound ticket across America. Malcolm eventually landed in Maui, where he lived on the beach and worked for a fisherman.
Back in Canada, his friendship with Tom Sims led to work with Sims Snowboards in marketing, design and brand management. For several years Malcolm travelled extensively through the action-sports industry, developing his eye for design, photography and branding.
Travelling through Europe, he found himself drawn to antique jewelry, old architecture and the carved metalwork he encountered along the way.
Long before Bloodline existed, the influences were already there..
MALCOLM + ANDREA
In 1992, Malcolm met Andrea on a Saturday morning at Kits Beach in Vancouver.
Not long afterward, Andrea bought him several rings. When Malcolm took them to a jeweler to be resized, it wasn't the rings that held his attention. It was the bench — the anvils, torches and tools of the trade.
Something clicked.
Malcolm left his corporate job and apprenticed at a Vancouver casting house, learning from jewelers and carvers throughout the Pacific Northwest. He worked in casting by day and taught himself wax carving and metal fabrication at night.
They were lean years. Odd jobs paid the rent while Malcolm's own design language slowly began to take shape.
FINDING THE BLOODLINE
One day, while looking through a book at the Vancouver Public Library, Malcolm came across a photograph of a carved doorway at Ely Cathedral in England.
The centuries-old carving was credited to “The Normans.”
Malcolm's last name is Norman.
Even more remarkably, the patterns in the carving bore an extraordinary resemblance to those already emerging in his own wax work.
The coincidence was impossible to ignore.
Soon after, Bloodline Design had its name.
In 1994, the name was officially registered and the first Bloodline collection was taken to stores around Vancouver.
Every store bought it.
1999
FAMILY BUSINESS
The business grew quickly.
Bloodline expanded its studio and staff, signed with a New York showroom and began working with sales representatives in Toronto, Los Angeles and Paris. The jewelry found its way into stores internationally, from independent boutiques to larger retailers.
But at home, something even bigger was happening.
In 1999, Malcolm and Andrea welcomed identical triplet sons — Broden, Kael and Dace — joining their older brother, Eben. The family moved into a house in Kitsilano and converted the basement into a studio.
Bloodline was growing.
So was the family.
GROWING — AND PULLING BACK
The early years weren't a straight line upward.
A major account went bankrupt and nearly took the young company with it. Suppliers and devoted customers helped Bloodline through it, but the experience changed Malcolm and Andrea's thinking about what they were building and why.
The jewelry had become part of people's lives — worn to mark milestones, celebrations and moments that mattered. At the same time, Malcolm was travelling constantly while four boys were growing up at home.
So they made a decision that wasn't particularly fashionable in business.
They made Bloodline smaller.
The company continued, relationships with key boutiques remained, and custom and wardrobe work grew. But Malcolm and Andrea chose to build the business around their family rather than the other way around.
The family was more important.
THE NEXT GENERATION
Through the years, Bloodline continued quietly.
Relationships with boutiques and craftspeople grew, custom work expanded, and Bloodline pieces appeared in film, television and on musicians and other well-known clients. Much of that happened without changing the way the jewelry itself was made.
Today, Bloodline remains family-owned, and a second generation is becoming part of the company.
More than three decades after it began at a dining-room table, our jewelry is still designed, carved, cast and finished in Vancouver.
The studio is bigger now.
The tools are better.
The principles haven't changed.