As a girl, Clementina Duarte loved to draw pictures of princesses and, in her imagination, all women were royalty, dwelling in a world of castles, emeralds, pearls and lace.
Later, as a pupil of the first School of Architecture in Recife, Clementina Duarte was privileged to study under talented architects and renowned teachers, from whom she acquired a deep appreciation of the history of art, philosophy and aesthetics. In 1964 she enrolled in a Master's program at the University of Brasília, where she taught History of Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture, at that time presided by Oscar Niemeyer. Niemeyer, who greatly admired his junior colleague's jewelry, immortalized her work with the phrase: "how beautifully Clementina's necklaces would adorn the women of Modigliani".

This phase corresponds to Clementina Duarte's first creative period, from her internship at Institut d'Art et Metiers in Paris, in 1965, up until her exhibition at Centro Domus, in Milan, in 1972, where she represented Brazil. The pieces were handcrafted, creating an effect of spaces and relief. The spaces in these jewels allow a view of the colors of the garments, thus greatly enhancing the clothes, a quality much appreciated by certain famous fashion designers. They were first displayed at the Steph Simon Gallery in Paris, a paragon of modern design where Charlotte Perriand and Le Corbusier first exhibited their works. This line of jewelry was shown at Pierre Cardin's 1966 Spring/Summer Collection, in an integrated display of modern jewelry and high fashion. In 1971, at the XI Bienal of São Paulo, Clementina Duarte received the award for "Best Jewelry Design". That same year, she held an exhibition at Galeria de Arte de Ipanema, in Rio de Janeiro, after which she represented modern Brazilian design at the Course of Design in Export Promotion, held in Helsinki, Finland.

The earlier sedate designs attain freedom, as jewels take on new forms. Designs quest for freedom of form and simplicity, despite their tendency to boundless exuberance, oblivious to discipline or rigidity. The dominant features of the designs are whorls, curves, and convoluted volumes, that imbue Clementina Duarte's jewels with their characteristic originality. The jewels presented by the Brazilian Federal Government, and the Government of the State of Pernambuco, to Queen Elizabeth II, and to the First Lady of the United States, Rosalyn Carter, date from this period. The first exhibitions of Clementina Duarte's works during this phase were held in London and in New York, in 1974.

Clementina Duarte, having researched the behavior of modern women at work and at leisure has, as of 1970, sought to provide women with jewels of simplicity and elegance that combine comfort and practicality. Thus new collections have ensued, comprising jewels in gold and in silver, sometimes including precious or semi-precious stones, that mold themselves to the personality of their wearers. Pieces, such as her positive and negative earrings, necklace in waves, rings and earrings with pyramids in gold and silver, are regarded as classics of Clementina Duarte's style. For each type of jewel, Clementina Duarte's pieces present exquisite proportions in a range of materials, for women of all ages and physical types to wear on all manner of occasions. Her research into the properties of precious materials reflects her constant concern with the creation of jewels designed to last eternally.

Inspired by a heritage of Lusitanian and Arab influences, samples of Clementina Duarte's jewelry reflecting characteristics of Brazilian baroque were selected by Brazil's Ministry of Foreign Relations to represent modern Brazilian jewel design at an exhibition in Abu-Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in 1982. Her pieces in gold, pearls, diamonds and Brazilian emeralds, feature sets of convoluted whorls, with relief and undulations. The success of the exhibition in Abu-Dhabi, and the subsequent display at Queen Fátima Al Nayan's palace, led to Clementina Duarte's being commissioned to create the jewels worn by Princess S.H.Shamma Bint Zayed al Nahyran, and the Princess' sister, at her royal wedding. This collection amply reflects one of the most outstanding features of Clementina Duarte's work: its ability, while reflecting the past, to presage the future .

From her roots in Brazil and, more specifically, Pernambuco, Clementina Duarte has derived jewels of modern inspiration reminiscent of the luxuriant flora of tropical forests, of seaweed on sunny beaches of Brazil's Northeast, and vines in the Amazon Rainforest. Her work is intimately linked to nature. Though initially specializing in works of larger volume, of late, her jewels have assumed smaller shapes, reflecting tropical nature, with increasing informality and lightness. Despite their increasingly organic inspiration since 1970, her jewels nonetheless continue to have great international appeal.
Her principal exhibitions of pieces reflecting this natural inspiration were held at Galeria AM Niemeyer, in Rio de Janeiro in 1982, and at the Brazilian Trade Center in New York, in 1983.
Based on the fluid shapes of pitanga, jasmine and mango leaves, Clementina Duarte created earrings, necklaces and bracelets. Her Positive-Negative Earrings were, naturally, chosen to symbolize this collection, that also featured small tubular sections in gold and silver, forming flexible necklaces, that add fluidity to the design.

In her quest to create a contemporary Brazilian language for jewels of great value, Clementina Duarte sought to express modern forms and romanticism through her treatment of gold and of precious stones, based on the art of traditional Portuguese-Brazilian goldsmiths. The results could be seen at a retrospective exhibition, held in 1990 at the Center for Modern Art of Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon , displaying 25 years of her creative works, that gave special prominence to pieces of fine jewelry.
Reflecting Brazilian inspiration, these pieces have attracted international acclaim for their bold composition and for their sobriety, at the same time modern, pure and classical. Various of these collections of precious jewels have resulted from special commissions, made to order for clients in a variety of countries. Classical examples of jewels in this category are to be found in the Passion and Brasil collections, that describe the Country by means of jewels.