A Jewelry Designer Who Captures the History of the Universe With Precious Gems

Still left: Designer Ope Omojola. Ideal: Aura hoops in landscape jasper and glass.

When jewelry designer Ope Omojola stares at stone, she sees the entire universe unfold. “You’re wanting at millions of many years of development, advancement, and change,” she claims. Octave Jewelry, the Brooklyn-based mostly model Omojola began in 2017, specializes in framing these moments in time in precious metals.

A university student of anthropology who manufactured her way into vogue, Omojola appropriately pivoted to jewelry only right after taking a metalsmithing class at the 92nd Avenue Y in New York Metropolis. Her principal products, apart from treasured and semiprecious stones, are sterling silver and, not long ago, glass. “Figuring out new procedures of combining these components has been a exciting way to expand my observe,” she claims. “I’m wondering of how a colour will glance on pores and skin and how certain movements will seize the mild.”

Inspiration comes from significantly and extensive: Ellsworth Kelly drawings and Etel Adnan paintings René Lalique’s creations and Neolithic stone tools. Her investigation process, nonetheless, is not only about photographs, but touches on philosophy, science, and far more. “I’ve actually gotten back into participating my intellect,” she claims. “It’s built my imaginative course of action that substantially richer, due to the fact objects with no context are meaningless.”

Jewelry is not the conclusion of the tale, nevertheless. Omojola is at the moment producing her 1st assortment of goods for the home: candelabras and sconces built from brass, jasper, and marble. Although the scale is unique, the parts are nevertheless constructed from the Octave vocabulary: “It’s not a whole new language it is a new dialect.”

This story originally appeared in the April 2022 issue of ELLE DECOR. SUBSCRIBE

You May possibly Also Like