Melanie Georgacopoulos: MOP Shell Collection Features New Pieces

Mother of Pearl, otherwise known as nacre is produced by mollusks as an inner shell layer, it also makes up the outer coating of pearls. It is a strong, resilient and iridescent material that has been used for thousands of years, mainly in the form of inlay.

Natural MOP has many different applications worldwide, in both expensive and inexpensive items. It can be commonly found in East Asian and Islamic religious art, popular Victorian household items such as knife handles and buttons, as well as Chinese gaming counters and delicate caviar spoons. As a material it is more widely used than pearls, however, despite its popularity, it has never reached the pearls symbolic status.

The collection, divided into two sub-collections ‘Cages’ and ‘Tiled’ aims to explore the potential of MOP and its various beautiful, rich colours. For the Cages, Melanie took this flat material and created seamless three dimensional diamond and emerald forms mimicking silhouettes from her popular Caged and Couture Collections. The ambiguous forms push further her exploration into the relationship between gemstones and pearls in contemporary jewellery.

Exploiting MOP’s light weight quality Melanie chose to create large necklaces and bracelets for the ‘Tiled’ sub-collection. Utilizing waterjet cutting technology, she was able to ensure that all the repeated components were exactly the same size before being threaded together on silk thread. This assembly method, referencing the classic pearl necklace, enabled her to achieve effortless curves and add volume to these otherwise flat mosaiclike forms. The majority of the pieces in the collection are reversible, featuring different coloured MOP on each side, and all are beautifully finished with 18ct gold custom made clasps featuring Tahitian, South Sea or the highest quality Freshwater pearls.