Isilay Davaz, who goes by her American name Isabella, is a Turkish American daughter of immigrants whose love of history began with her father. Some of her earliest memories are of listening to him speak about empires, migrations, rulers, and civilizations long gone. Through him, history was never distant or abstract. It was alive. It was identity. It was inheritance.

Her anticipated path was in science. She was on track toward becoming a physician, immersed in medicine, research, and clinical work. Yet alongside that structured academic pursuit lived a quieter creative instinct. As a hobby, she began collecting antique trinkets and vintage costume jewelry as a way of touching the eras she studied and loved.

Unlike many who grow up surrounded by heirloom jewelry and family collections, Isabella did not. Her mother owned three pieces: her own mother’s wedding ring, her wedding band, and a wedding gift ring from a family friend. Jewelry in their home was not plentiful. It was sacred.

She entered the world of adornment later, and humbly. At first it was costume and plated pieces, chosen simply to accessorize and express what she felt but could not yet articulate. While completing her schooling, she worked relentlessly. At one point she held three positions simultaneously, working in the emergency department to gain hours for medical school, in a laboratory as a medical technologist, and slowly building Golden Hour Jewelry to afford buying and reselling pieces she loved.

What began as costume evolved into her first Victorian solid gold pin and carved cameo. She sold those to purchase a few gold rings. She sold those and acquired more. Piece by piece, she recycled every dollar into solid gold and gemstones. Before long, gold had her heart.

Gold holds deep meaning in Turkish culture. It represents security, celebration, womanhood, and legacy. It was a cultural experience she had never fully lived growing up, yet deeply longed for. Through collecting and curating, she found a way to reclaim that inheritance for herself.

During a season of personal turmoil, jewelry became more than an object. It became language. Photography and videography became her means of channeling emotion and transforming pain into beauty. It was during this time that Golden Hour Jewelry was born. What began as a side project quietly became something far larger than she anticipated.

Golden Hour Jewelry is not simply about gold. It is about storytelling. It is about reclaiming heritage. It is about divine femininity, strength, resilience, and the quiet power of adornment. What began as a creative outlet became a calling, and through Golden Hour Jewelry, she now shares that calling with quiet gratitude.

Her aesthetic and inspiration are rooted in the Baroque and Renaissance eras above all. She is endlessly inspired by the drama of Caravaggio’s shadow, the richness of Titian’s portraiture, the anatomical reverence of Michelangelo, and the relentless curiosity of Leonardo da Vinci, artists who saw the human form as divine architecture. She draws from the women who shaped courts and empires: Anne Boleyn, Catherine de Medici, and the formidable Ottoman sultanas, Hürrem Sultan, Nurbanu Sultan, Kösem Sultan, whose influence moved through marble halls and history alike.

Beyond imperial courts, her inspiration reaches further still. It stretches across the Mediterranean, where sun-soaked orchards, deep pomegranate reds, olive greens, and sapphire waters mirror the very palette of gemstones she curates. It returns inward to İç Anadolu, the Anatolian heartland, where earth tones and wind-carved landscapes echo ancient Turkic nomadic traditions that honored the body with symbols of sky, soil, and spirit.

In gold, in garnet, in emerald and lapis, she sees geography. She sees inheritance. She sees continuity.

Golden Hour Jewelry is her way of preserving that lineage, and passing it forward.