Earlier this month, British jewellery brand Otiumberg, led by sister duo Christie and Rosanna Wollenberg, entered the world of homeware in a new creative partnership with interior objects and ceramics brand Henry Holland Studio. The collaboration is a meeting of minds that both see design as intrinsically linked to the human experience, where product can become an extension of feeling. The result? Two new handcrafted jewellery boxes – one based on the label’s earring silhouette and a smaller round one with a zebra-like sheen.
“Jewellery has always been about intimacy – pieces that are kept close, often hidden and imbued with memory,” say the Wollenbergs. “A ceramic box extends the idea into the home.” To find that balance between these purposes – an object meant to exist in spaces of domesticity and adornment – each container is topped by the brand’s signature golden knot motif. Founded in 2016 in the sisters’ shared London home, Otiumberg is a people-centred label that bridges the gap between fine jewellery and that found on the high street. So it tracks that it would want to take a 360-degree approach, extending its DNA into the spaces its customers inhabit.
The partnership was organic from the start. “The conversations evolved slowly and intuitively; there wasn’t a rigid brief, more an ongoing dialogue around form, ritual and the idea of keeping,” say the Otiumberg founders. This very intimate approach to design chimed strongly with Holland, who notes, “For me, it’s about rituals.” In his own practice, he found that he’d spent enough time thinking about the dining table and how we come together in that space. When the concept of making something for the dressing table was proposed, Holland was certainly intrigued. “It’s quieter, more intimate,” he says. “A jewellery box lives in that space where you’re getting ready, choosing pieces that express how you want to show up in the world that day. It felt like the perfect intersection of both brands: Otiumberg’s world of jewellery and our focus on handmade objects, materiality and ritual.”
The project provided pause for thought for both parties involved as they learned from each other and found a healthy intersection between home and jewel. Henry Holland Studio’s signature nerikomi style (which appears on both boxes) involves a slow, meditative process. Coloured clay is layered, folded and rolled to elicit a marbled pattern from the mineral before being hand-moulded into the final product. This results in something that can’t be replicated; no two works can be the same. It’s a singularity achieved through a meticulous rhythm of movement and depth to birth a considered form. “We embraced that rhythm, even when it presented challenges,” say the Wollenbergs. “Some of the most interesting outcomes came from moments where things didn’t go exactly to plan. It was about allowing the material to speak.”
Otiumberg co-founder Christie Wollenberg with Henry Holland at Henry Holland Studio
Henry Holland Studio began as a mere creative outlet after the namesake went on hiatus from the fashion industry on account of the 2020 lockdown (he was previously the creative director of House of Holland). “It wasn’t a dramatic ‘I’m leaving fashion forever’ moment, it was more instinctive. I just knew that I needed to work with my hands again,” he says. “Ceramics slowed everything down. It brought me back to making, to creating something that exists physically in the world in a really grounded way.” The nerikomi process became a meditation for Holland, a practice far removed from the full speed ahead pace of fashion whilst still grasping that graphic distinction he was comfortable with.
Transposing this into the jewellery sphere feels like a natural renewal of Holland’s craft marked by presence and intention. Here, jewellery and homeware can collide in a celebration of function and expression, with the former entering as something more, something sculptural. Available to purchase now, you can get yours here.
Photography courtesy of Otiumberg and Henry Holland Studio.
