Folktales Collection S20

May 06, 2020

Our new collection Folktales is inspired by local symbols and filled with folk stories.

Creating Folktales was a relatively an exciting process. I already knew I wanted to translate our local summers into jewellery narratives for the S20 collection.

Having in mind all the symbols deeply rooted in my greek culture and local stories I heard growing up, the paper designs were ready. Giving life to the drawings with the filigree technique was the second and more challenging task. As you might have known by now SoL is dedicated to the ancient art of filigree and each design is made by hand and twisted wires just like jewellery makers used to create their pieces 5000 years ago.

I started with the round wire for the 'Helios' Set which left me satisfied from the first sample.

'Mataki', my filigree version of the famous evil eye symbol, had to be part of the collection as it is believed to date back to Greek classical antiquity and still is a strong talisman for the Mediterranean region.

I then moved to create shells inspired by Cypriot beaches. 'Korali' was the first and it took 2 weeks to perfect it.

I actually wear the 'Korali' prototype earrings more often than the official version now, although I didn't like it at first glance and wanted to work on it more.

The 'Venus' was the second shell design and was inspired by the shell that escorted the goddess to the Cyprus beach in Botticelii's painting 'The birth of Venus'.

Just when everything seemed to be ready the pandemic appeared and the photoshoot of the collection got cancelled. In isolation I decided to grab my camera and photoshoot the pieces on myself at home holding the 'kanata', an ancient pot which Cypriot women used to bring water from the river to their homes.

A professional photo shoot for Folktales was made after the lockdown but I kept the image of myself holding the 'kanata' as the featured image of the collection simply to remind me to be creative, expressive and honest with every situation at any given moment.

I also wanted to let you know that all our materials for this collection are once more carefully sourced and not one piece of jewellery is the same as they are crafted by hand and love in our Cyprus workshop which will soon open as a showroom as well.. Cant wait for that!

Hope you enjoy Folktales and please do not hesitate to drop me an email with any questions or simply to say hi! Would love to hear from you!

Gratefully,

Eleni Nicolaou