Old meets New Mother of Pearl Silver necklace

This is a limited edition ‘Old World meets New World’ collection, a collection that tells and carries a story and history. An antique Mother of pearl coin carefully set in a simple silver frame. The Coin is carved on both sides with a stunning starburst pattern.

My inspiration comes from preserving history and the actual Antique gaming coin in a wearable format to be viewed and appreciated by both the wearer and viewer.

Well preserved antique gaming coins are hard to find, but I'd managed to find a few of these on great conditions which I hope to show them off as wearable jewellery as much as I can.

……… Background history on these Antique coins ………

Once carved by the Chinese when back in the day's when card games with quaint names like Piquet, Quadrille, and Spinado were the rage in the 18th and 19th centuries. Although the games are long gone, their mother-of-pearl gaming chips live on as collectable antiques.

The most beautiful antique chips are the ones carved and engraved by the Chinese between 1720 and 1840. Aristocrats often arranged to purchase exotic gaming chips through sea captains and agents of the Honourable East India Company (HEIC). As part of their salary, crew members were allocated a small area in the cargo hold in which to transport items to sell personally back in the motherland. The shipping companies themselves were primarily interested in major products such as tableware and tea rather than in small trinkets like mother-of-pearl gaming chips.

This is a Limited edition collection.

Heidi Lowe Earrings Galore Exhibition

Happy to announce that 6 pairs of my 'Old Meets New' earring collection is heading to 'Earrings Galore' exhibition in the US. Minicyn is one out of 48 chosen from over 180 applicants – I cannot wait to see the others.

The exhibition will take place at Heidi Lowe Gallery as well as at SNAG, Chicago in May and New York City Jewelry Week in November 2019. .

Big thank you Heidi! Here's an interview I found in the Jewelry Journey Podcast on her & her gallery if it tickles your fancy: https://thejewelryjourney.com/podcasts/heidi-lowe/

Mother of Pearl Capsule collection

Since the beginning of the year, I've been experimenting with some pieces of Mother of Pearl from my stash of goodies. Learning on how to cut/saw, polish, shape etc the material ('Nacre' in French). It's been a rather messy study though the results have been rewarding. It reverberated in just a small handful of earrings which I'd presented them briefly during my participation in JEMA (please see my previous Blog posts) at my studio.

I happy to say that a few of the designs will be available to purchase in the next few days. The quantity is very limited unfortunately so brace yourselves!

Here are just some which I'll be listing soon. Available in both Silver or oxidised.