Ted Noten was born in 1956 in Tegelen, The Netherlands. After an eventful youth, during which he was in turn a bricklayer, a nurse in a psychiatric hospital and a traveller for 3 years, he decided to study design. From 1983 to 1990 he attended the Academy for Applied Arts in Maastricht and then the Gerit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam.

Ted's career as a jewellery maker started in 1990 and has included many group exhibitions in museums and galleries, as well as one-man shows in Amsterdam, Geneva, Munich, Tokyo, Berlin, Maastricht, Rotterdam, New York, Stockholm and now Venice. Ted has also had a rich academic career, in both teaching and research. His works are part of numerous public collections such as the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the F.N.A.C. - Paris, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, SM-s Museum for Modern Art at s'Hertogenbosch, the Royal College of Art in London, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Montreal, etc.