the minoan marine collection.
The ideas for my Minoan Marine collection have been percolating in my mind ever since the very early days of Plato’s Fire. I’ve always loved the beautiful frescoes that decorated the ancient Cretan palaces, with their cheerful colours and cheeky characters, and that bemused-looking octopus vase is a firm favourite among classicists and non-classicists alike!
In fact, this was almost my first collection. But I knew so much less about the laser-cut designing and making process back then, and grew frustrated when I couldn’t make what was in my head a reality.
Not any more!
As always, I started with my sketchbook and made (very) rough drawings of my favourite artefacts from various museum websites and catalogues - the Met, British Museum, National Archaeological Museum of Greece and Archaeological Museum of Herakleion were particularly useful.
The more I drew the more I knew that I wanted this collection to be centred around the Minoan frescoes. And that I wanted this collection to be quite literal, as though I’d plucked the dolphins and the fish straight off the walls and attached them to my ears.
From there, it was pretty easy to choose the colours! I faffed about a bit with making samples entirely out of mirrored acrylic (classic me) but then this STUNNING shimmery marbley turquoisey deliciousness caught my eye and I knew I had to base the entire collection around it. The red marble adds a lovely contrast and the gold mirror ties this collection into my previous ones - I had a minor panic when my husband suggested it looked a little bit ‘Union Jack-y’ but I think (hope) I got away with it!
Aside from the colour choices, I didn’t change much between the samples and the final pieces. I think I learnt a lot from my last collection, and hope I can carry this forwards to my next one too!
And while I definitely underestimated how much longer it would take me to assemble some of these pieces with all their tiny, fiddly little components, I think they’re worth it. I’ve never kept so many pieces back for myself before - I have a pair each of the rosette, octopus, dolphin, statement fish, and flag earrings!
Get your own piece of Minoan-inspired jewellery here: the Minoan Marine collection.
