THE MOTHER OF ALL JEWELS
Jewellery designers' lucky charms? It's a family affair.Jewellery can be deeply personal, weighted in sentimental worth. Especially keepsakes that have been gifted to us from our loved ones. As well as being aesthetically pleasing, these little luxuries can be a source of protection, and comfort. To celebrate Mother’s Day 2021, we caught up with six female jewellers – from from Delfina Delettrez to Jessica McCormack - to share their most significant “jewellery-hug” that each of them has received from their mother, and the one they gave her in return.
“I never took it off”
ANA KHOURI
From my mother: On my first birthday, my mother gave me a simple thin hard oval gold bracelet, to which she would add a small circle pendant every year on my birthday. I never took it off, and wore it until I was 10 — of course resizing it as I grew. That bracelet means the world to me.
To my mother: My signature Mirian collection is designed after my mother, Mirian. The fact that the ring doesn’t completely encircle the finger, the neck, the wrist or the ear reflects the freedom my mother always gave me to live my life as I pleased. The stones are set asymmetrically, reflecting my belief in inclusion and diversity in all matters. I do not believe that there is only one path or one truth in life.
BURO LOVES:
SOPHIE BILLE BRAHE
From my mother: After the birth of my first son, Johan, my mother gave me a very special pearl necklace made with natural pearls. This was an inspiration and the beginning of my jewellery collection that always features pearls.
To my mother: I recently gave my mother the “Peggy Pearl” necklace, strung with cultivated freshwater pearls, graduating in size from large to small on a 60 cm white silk thread closed by a 14K gold clasp. We both wear it.
BURO LOVES:
SOPHIE BILLE BRAHE, Peggy pearl & 14kt gold necklace, £2,975
JESSICA MCCORMACK
From my mother: Over the years, my mother gave me beautiful antique pieces of New Zealand pounamu jewellery, and now this collection, which I adore, means everything to me. Pounamu represents one’s ancestors and has a connection with the natural world. The stone is believed to be imbued with mana (status) and life force, and is therefore tapu (sacred).
To my mother: The most recent piece of jewellery I gave to my mother was one of the snake rings from my collaboration with the Haas Brothers. These rings felt really special to me, as the snake motif resembled the collection’s mascot, and I knew she’d love them. Whenever I have a new collection, I tend to send my mum one of my favourite pieces to wear with her antique jewellery. She probably owns the best Jessica McCormack archive!
BURO LOVES:
Jessica McCormack & Haas Brothers Enamel Snake Ring in Lilac, £1,250
VALÉRIE MESSIKA
From my mother: When I was a child, my mother gave me for Christmas a Van Cleef & Arpels bracelet which had belonged to my grandmother. This is a flexible cuff set with a river of diamonds — its clasp and diamond settings left me under a spell because it is a treasured memory of my grandmother.
To my mother: Several years ago, I gave my mother a Move Noa and Move Romane bangles which are named after my two daughters. This way she is able to have her granddaughters with her every day.
BURO LOVES:
SHEHERAZADE GOLDSMITH
From my mother: On my 18th birthday, my mother gave me a white and yellow gold panther Cartier watch. I wore it wherever I travelled, including when I got my first job, gave birth to my children, moved into my first home, signed my divorce, and when I started my company. It really marked the passage to a grown-up world. It’s always been with me, and 29 years later it still looks exactly as it did the morning she gave it to me when I wondered what it was about.
To my mother: My mother lives in the US, so we are regularly separated. I thought a Loquet filled with her children’s initials and her grandchildren’s birthstones would be a symbolic way of keeping us all together. To honour her distinct style – think Frida Kahlo on mushrooms at the Mad Hatter’s tea party – I designed our first sapphire and diamond rainbow locket — a piece I had shied away from, but it is now central to the playful elegance of everything we do.
BURO LOVES:
DELFINA DELETTREZ
From my mother: I naturally associate my mother to rubies. When I was a baby she would always wear a beautiful pigeon blood ruby and two diamonds ring. Feed me with milk while wearing it, I always liked to think that the milk was infused with the power of that stone she was wearing. So when I had my first baby she decided to give me that same ring that I of course wore when my daughter was a baby.
To my mother: We share the same phobia for insects, so I decided to help her overcome it by creating for her a beetle.
BURO LOVES:
ABOVE: A BESPOKE DESIGN. YOU CAN SHOP HER MOST RECENT COLLECTION HERE.
