You wouldn’t be wrong if you said you recognised this collection!
This my friends is the [formerly known as] Korona collection! Oh boy did that feel like the elephant in the room!!
First launched last year, as part of Walter and May’s (glorious gifts and homewares store in York, please do check them out if you haven’t met them yet) first birthday - owner Beth, got in touch with me about creating a collection of jewellery that meant a little more. I jumped at the chance, jewellery that means something is totally my thing and I do LOVE a commission (I LOVE them, Christmas is coming…. just sayin’!!).
So we created a range, all about shining bright with strength and we called it the Korona collection❗️(It was a reference to the corona of light surrounding the sun, but we cleverly changed the C for a K because thats the Norwegian spelling - also one of my ‘things’(see below)!)
We loved this range and I think we can confidently call it a best seller. But you can see where this is going, right?
March 2020 happened. And the more that ‘rona was mentioned in the news, the less and less I wanted to talk about our beautiful Korona collection. You might say we had a bit of a palm. face. moment!
We chatted it though and completely inspired by the fact that W&M customers were still purchasing from the collection, to wear themselves or send to a friend, we got our thinking caps on.
All my jewellery collections have Norwegian names, its a nod to my brother and his family who live out there, so whenever a collection is named, a lot of google translating goes on (and also some praying that google translate will translate things correctly… part of me waits for the day that my sister-in-law sends me a message saying ‘err, thats not what that means’!!!). The name needs to epitomise the story behind the collection but also sound beautiful. If I’m completely honest… it wasn’t love at first sight with ‘Korona’, so I was excited to have the opportunity to rename it.
I started with a mind map, as I always do. The collection is about shining and so the word list began. I hit upon the word ‘illuminate’. Ooooh, thats nice! I love the idea of ‘shedding light’; shining so brightly that those around you can see. It really resonated with the meaning behind the collection. In Norwegian, the word for illuminate is ‘Belyse’. It was love at first sight.
We’ve added two new pieces to the Belyse collection, inspired by the strength of bonds and connections between family and friends throughout this strange time.
Beth sent me a sketch of what she was thinking in term of adding a new necklace. I got playing around with different sizes of Belyse hoops. I loved how going one size above and below the standard hoop meant one would fit perfectly inside the other – sort of how a Mother would envelope her child. This necklace we called ‘You and Me’.
While I’d been making this design my mind had gone crazy with other combinations. For both of us, it’s important that the design of a necklace means you can move it along the chain – turns out we both love a necklace you can fiddle with while you think!
I got to thinking about what if the hoops weren’t relations but friends, equals, you know that friend who you know has your back. The one you’ve been through thick and thin with. The one you’ve laughed with and cried with. What if the hoops were interlocking? We loved it and so the ‘Together’ necklace came into being.
