Pippa Small

Opal:

This season we are showcasing the opal.
The word opal comes from the Greek word opalios which means 'gem' or 'precious stone'. They were prized as much as diamonds by the Greeks and worn by the Romans. It is translucent or sometimes opaque.

Enhancing self-worth, it helps us to understand our full potential. It can be used to stimulate originality and creativity. The opal intensifies love, passion and desire.

The stone comes in a variety of different types: fire, blue & Peruvian opal and from a number of countries such as Australia, Brazil, Italy, Mexico, South Africa and Czech Republic.

  New Kuna & Bolivian Collection:

This year Pippa Small worked with the Kuna Indians of Panama to create a new collection. These pieces are inspired by the ‘Mola' designs of the Kuna women.
" The Kuna Indians believe that gold is purifying and sacred, the veins of mother earth and they design working from stories and using symbolic animals birds and fish We worked on cascading waterfalls of tumbling gold butterflies, chains of disks with the Mola patterns carefully engraved on each piece that glitter and flash in the sun.” Each piece is handmade and one of a kind.

"For the Bolivian collection I wanted to work with the gold from a cooperative mine in the Yungus, This mine is aiming to eventually reach Fair Trade standards and works without cyanide and is hoping to eradicate the use of mercury. I worked with goldsmiths in La Paz. Soon we create a collection of 24kt pure gold pebbles, making natural graceful shapes that allow the beauty of the gold to speak. We made round, soft beads, molded on ancient pre-Colombian gold that speak of the passing of time, wind, water and earth.”
 This perfect little sculptures have been strung on coloured alpaca wool to wear as reminders of water-worn pebbles and they support a mine that is trying to improve the conditions for both the miners who work there and the earth around.