It had been a long time between drinks for me when it came to releasing a new collection. Then along appeared Margaritari, which finally manifested after spending a few years away from designing. Meaning pearl in Latin, Margaritari explores my love for pearls and natural elements.

This collection takes a cue from a family heirloom, passed down from my grandmother in Thailand, many moons ago. My grandfather travelled to Mecca and returned with this exotic gold pendant, inscribed with Arabic etchings and surrounded with wonderfully wonky pearls. My late grandmother used to wear it and when she passed away over 40 years ago, the pendant found its way into my hands through my mum. It is the most beautiful, unique keepsake. The jewellery in Margaritari pays homage to the piece by employing a similar whipstitched technique, featuring lustrous pearls.

My creativity runs at full steam whenever I am jet-setting around the globe. I would say that 99.9% of my inspiration stems from my travels, so you could imagine that when the pandemic hit pause on the world, my creative engine stalled too. Upon things opening up again, I travelled back to my motherland of Thailand with my mum for a much-awaited trip.

I recall sitting in our hotel room in the magnificent Rachamanka Hotel in Chiang Mai and ideas started overflowing in my head like popcorn going off. I grabbed the little complimentary hotel notepad and started scribbling and sketching ideas with the hotel pencil and it blossomed from there.

During this trip to Thailand, I was able to revisit all of my suppliers and reunited with my wonderfully talented silversmith face-to-face. I started gathering various pearls and gemstones that I took a fancy to. My way of developing a style is to assemble all of the items I have sourced, like a bowerbird bringing objects back to its nest and sit with them surrounding me. I piece it all together like a dynamic jigsaw puzzle and the designs bloom from there. For instance, I picked up some lovely moonstones from one gemstone supplier. I sat with these stones for a while and decided I wanted to work with the beautiful marquise shape of the stone. I added some lilac pearls to it to highlight the colours in the moonstone and these treasures ended up turning into the Nava earrings.

I’m a bowerbird, always gathering beautiful objects via my journeys and travels abroad. I love to let the gems speak to me as I craft them into an expression of myself. With several more trips lined up for this year, who knows what inspiration is manifested next? Stay tuned for the next chapter.

Bringing the Lamom Earrings to life    +          Assembling the Soleh Choker