What does the desert have to do with Jewellery?

Contemplating the first jewellery designs for Harmattan Jewellery, inspired by the Egyptian desert.

The desert - a world of its own.

Cairo, 2008-2010. I had the feeling that adventure was still very much alive here, it was something between Indiana Jones and The English Patient.

Living in Egypt was not always easy, but it was an extraordinary rewarding experience. Cairo was intense, noisy, colourful and full of contrasts. Beyond the city, however, lay a very different world: the vast deserts of Egypt. I fell deeply in love with those landscapes. Travelling into the desert felt like stepping into an older tested period of time. There was a sense of discovery and romance that I had thought belonged to another age.

What does it feel like to be in the desert?

Sculptural forms eroded by the wind over thousands of years.

The scale of the desert is difficult to describe. Vast stretches of eroded rock, endless dunes and horizons that seem to go on for ever. In some places, the landscape is scattered with fossils, evidence of a very different world thousands or millions of years ago. Elsewhere, you might come across the remains of Roman forts or even abandoned Second World War vehicles.

Silver earrings inspired by shapes and textures of the desert.

The surfaces themselves fascinate me. Thousands of years of wind have shaped the rocks, leaving textures and patterns that seem almost sculptural. There are caves, hidden valleys and places where the silence is so complete that you became intensely aware of your surroundings. The sun and clouds create ever moving patterns of shade and light that seem to be playing with one another. The days can be scorching hot, while the nights are surprisingly cold. After a long day travelling, there was nothing quite like sitting around a campfire beneath an extraordinary star-filled sky. With so little light pollution, the Milky Way and an amazing number of stars were clearly visible. It was one of those moments when you can feel there could hardly be anyone else in the world. It was a humbling experience. In the morning, stepping out of the tent, you would find the sand covered in tiny footprints: desert gerbils, beetles and occasionally the unmistakable tracks of a snake. A small reminder that the desert was far from empty. After the bustle of Cairo, this quietness was intoxicating.

Wonderful clear, soft and textured surfaces of the desert.

Why is Harmattan named after a desert wind?

The name Harmattan comes from the Harmattan wind, a seasonal wind that blows across the Sahara and into West Africa. I chose the name for my jewellery because of my deep affection for the desert and the sense of freedom, discovery and connection with nature and ancient cultures that I experienced there. I wanted a name that carried something of this incredibly inspirational landscape with it. Today, the name reminds me daily of those journeys and the extraordinary feeling of being surrounded by a landscape sculptured by time.

A stack of Nomad Pillows - an abstract desert form.

How did jewellery enter the picture?

I had always been fascinated by jewellery and the stories and meanings it carries. Living in Cairo gave that interest a new dimension. The museums were wonderful places to explore the richness, imagination and creativity displayed in ancient Egyptian jewellery. I was captivated by the materials, the combinations of colour and the extraordinary skill with which objects had been made thousands of years ago.

Oxidised silver earrings with gold inlay plays with light and shade.

Then there was the Khan el-Khalili bazaar in Cairo - for a geologist, the gemstone area was rather like walking into a very tempting sweet shop. There were stones in every colour and form, and I found myself enthuastically buying far more than I had any immediate use for. Eventually, I decided that I needed to learn how to work with some of them, so I enrolled on a jewellery-making course. What began as a way of using the stones I had collected soon became something much bigger.

When did a fascination become an artistic practise?

Over time, I developed relationships with people in the bazaar, and as I became a familiar face, I was sometimes shown pieces and materials tucked away from the more obvious tourist displays and quickly learned it is always good to ask what is not on show. I began selling my jewellery through a local expatriate gallery and also started a creative group called Mummy Means Business, bringing together local and expatriate women working in different creative fields.

We organised art exhibitions in the garden of my house in Cairo. They were joyful occasions, bringing together artists, makers, friends and visitors from many different backgrounds.

I made wonderful local and international friendships, and gradually Harmattan Jewellery began to take shape.

Setting of on another inspirational adventure.

What remains from those years?

Looking back, I realise how much those years influenced the way I work today.

The desert gave a lasting fascination with natural forms, geological time and the marks left by the elements. The museums introduced the extraordinary relationship between jewellery, identity and human history. The bazaar opened up a world of gemstones and materials. I am forever grateful to the wonderful people I met in Cairo and later who gave me the confidence to begin making and sharing my work.

Harmattan began in Cairo, but it was never simply about making jewellery. It grew out of curiosity, travel, geology, history and a desire to artistically explore the stories that materials and objects can carry. For me that original sense of adventure is still there, in every collection I make.

See desert inspired jewellery here

Stunning scenery with a never ending horizon.

Can nature make the jewellery?

With the tiniest crystals.

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They are tiny. Just 1–2 mm long, in delicate shades of clear quartz, amethyst, citrine, prasiolite and smoky quartz. At first glance, they might look like tiny faceted beads — but there is something quite different going on. These are natural crystals, and each one is double terminated: it has grown to a point at both ends. I have always been fascinated by these little crystals. They are so small that you could easily overlook them, yet when they are brought together in a necklace they catch the light with an extraordinary sparkle. And the sparkle isn't something I have created by cutting and polishing the stones. It comes from the crystals themselves.

The sparkle is already there

When we think of sparkling gemstones, we often think of faceting — the carefully calculated cuts made by a lapidary to reflect light back towards the viewer. These crystals are different.

Their tiny natural surfaces have formed as the crystal grew. The

Natural double terminated crystal structures.

points at either end are not cut into them afterwards; they are part of the crystal's natural structure. The only alteration to each crystal is the small hole that allows it to be threaded. The rest of the necklace is about how I arrange the crystals, bringing their different colours and forms together and allowing them to create the overall effect. Everything that sparkles is natural. That is something I particularly love about them.

A miniature piece of geology

As a geologist, I have encountered crystals like these in different settings.

During fieldwork I have come across naturally formed small and large crystals in rocks but also many lying free in sand or inside geodes where they developed their own beautiful crystal faces.

There is something extraordinary about finding a crystal in that setting. It is not altered by human hand. It isn't even necessarily something that was meant to be seen. It simply grew. Its shape and colour records the conditions in which it formed, and its surfaces are the result of the slow processes of geology rather than human design. These tiny double-terminated crystals have a sense of being complete in themselves. They were never made to become jewellery.

From geological object to jewellery

This is one of the things I love most about working with natural materials. I don't always want to transform them. Sometimes the most interesting thing is to interfere as little as possible and allow the material to remain itself and tell its own story. With these crystals, I am not trying to improve upon their natural sparkle. Instead, I choose the crystals, design the arrangement and bring their different colours in harmony. The necklaces are, in a sense, a frame for something that was already beautiful and fascinating. And perhaps that is an important part of making. We are so accustomed to adding, changing, cutting, polishing and perfecting that sometimes it is worth taking a step back and allowing nature to do the work and see the beauty in what is already here. There are moments when the best thing we can do is simply let the beauty of nature speak for itself. The crystals were formed by nature, I simply gave them a way to become jewellery and to speak of a way to connect to a much longer and deeper story.

Visit the necklaces Here

When Did Jewellery Become More Than Decoration?

Adapted from research for my University of Oxford Certificate of Higher Education in Archaeology.

Are they not fabulous? 75,000 year old shell beads from the Blombos Cave, South Africa (from Henshilwood 2004).

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Natural treasures found on the beach.

Most of us have probably done it.

We are walking along a beach and notice a beautiful stone or shell. We pick it up, turn it over in our hand and perhaps slip it into a pocket. Years later, we may still have it.

Objectively, it is just a stone. But to us it can hold the memory of a particular day, a place, the people we were with, the sound of the sea or simply the feeling of being there.

There is something about holding such an object in the hand. Its smoothness, weight and texture connect us physically to the natural world. A small stone can become comforting, grounding and deeply personal.

Perhaps this is one way of thinking about some of the earliest objects humans chose to collect and wear. Jewellery is often described as decoration. We wear it because we like the way it looks, because it completes an outfit, or simply because we enjoy beautiful things.

-But perhaps jewellery has never really been just decoration.

Long before jewellery became a fashion accessory, people were selecting objects, modifying them and wearing them on their bodies. And when we look at some of the earliest examples, it seems that these small objects were already doing something more than making the wearer look attractive. -They were communicating. The fascinating question is not really when jewellery became symbolic, but why humans have used objects on the body to communicate for so long.

Some of the earliest jewellery

At Blombos Cave in South Africa, perforated marine shells were being worn around 75,000 years ago. The shells had been deliberately selected and modified, and some show traces of pigment and colouring. They were not simply beautiful shells picked up and carried around. Someone had deliberately chosen them, made holes in them and turned them into something that could be worn. We cannot know exactly what these shells meant to the people who wore them. They might have communicated identity, relationships, belonging, status or something else entirely.

But we can see that the objects had acquired a meaning beyond the material they were made from. And that is an important distinction. A shell is not automatically a symbol. Its meaning comes from the people who use it and from the ideas shared within their society.

Jewellery becomes part of the body

Jewellery also changes when it is worn. At an archaeological site in western Russia, thousands of ivory beads were found associated with burials. Their quantities and positions suggest that people were wearing very substantial amounts of jewellery as individual pieces or as beads sown onto clothing. Looking at a reconstruction of a person wearing such ornaments, it becomes easier to imagine how different this may have been from the jewellery we normally wear today. Jewellery would have moved with the body. Some pieces may have caught the light, while others may have moved or made sounds as the wearer walked or danced. In other words, jewellery was not simply something placed on the body. It became part of the way the body was seen and experienced.

Reconstruction of jewellery and beaded clothing from 8,000 year old Russian man (Rainio and Mannermaa, 2014)

Jewellery can connect people

Jewellery can also tell us something about relationships between people and communities across large distances and time. 50,000 - 30,000 year old Ostrich eggshell beads found across Africa show remarkable similarities in their manufacture and appearance, even across considerable distances. Such similarities suggest that people shared ideas, symbology and ways of making and wearing ornaments across wide geographical areas. Jewellery can therefore give us clues not only about individuals, but also about connections between people. It can travel. Techniques can travel. Styles can travel. And perhaps, through these small objects, ideas travelled too.

And what about Neanderthals?

The story becomes even more interesting when we look beyond our own species. Neanderthals also selected and modified objects. Perforated shells have been found at Neanderthal sites, and their use may have had symbolic significance. This does not give us a simple answer about exactly when symbolic behaviour began. Instead, it suggests that the story may be much older and more complicated than the idea that modern humans suddenly invented symbolism.

So, has jewellery ever really been just decoration?

We will probably never know exactly what the first beads meant to the people who wore them.

But perhaps we can recognise something of ourselves in the simple human act of choosing and keeping an object. We still walk along a beach and pick up a stone. We turn it in our hands because we like its shape or texture. We take it home and, without necessarily intending to, give it meaning. Later, that small object can bring back an entire experience.

-A place. A person. A moment in time.

Thousands of years later, we are still doing something remarkably similar with jewellery.

We choose pieces because of how they look, but also because of where they came from, who gave them to us, what they remind us of and how they make us feel when we wear them.

The materials and styles change. But perhaps the human desire to select, hold, wear and give meaning to small objects is much older.

Perhaps jewellery has never really been just decoration.

-A small object can carry a story that is much larger than itself.

That idea is also at the heart of my Heirloom necklaces, where I incorporate personal objects chosen by the wearer into a piece of jewellery. A small object that may hold a memory, connection or private meaning becomes part of something new — carrying its story forward.

Read more about my Heirloom necklaces here:

The Heirloom Necklaces

Henshilwood, C., d’Errico, F., Vanhaeren, M., van Niekerk, K., and Jacobs, Z. (2004). Middle Stone Age shell beads from South Africa. Science, 304.

Rainio, R. and Mannermaa, K. (2014). Tracing the rattle of animal tooth pendants from the middle neolithic graves of Ajvide, Gotland, Sweden. World Archaeology, 46(3).