Ossicle Collection

An ossicle is a small bone. In sea-creatures, an ossicle is one of the tiny calcified pieces that make up the structure of starfish and sea urchins. After the animal dies and the tide rolls in and out for long enough, what is left on a beach in winter is a small handful of these bones. White or pale, shaped strangely, surprisingly heavy for their size.

This is the collection that takes its name from that handful.

What the collection is

The Ossicle collection sits in a quieter register than Thetis or Naiads. Where Thetis is the deep and Naiads is the rockpool, Ossicle is what is left behind. The texture in the metal is beaten, rough in the way that things smoothed by water are rough: organic, unrepeatable, never the same twice. The pieces use freshwater pearls more than they use faceted stones. The colours are pale, with silver, white gold and yellow gold worked alongside rustic finishes.

The collection reads as found. As if each piece had been pulled up from the sand at low tide rather than designed in a studio.

The pieces

There are ten pieces in the Ossicle collection. They fall into three rough families: the beaten silver pieces, the pearl pieces, and the named pieces that draw from specific stories.

The beaten family

The beaten texture is the signature of the collection. Created through an intuitive making process, it embraces simplicity, allowing organic textures and sculptural forms to speak for themselves.

• The Beaten Stacking Ring is a textured stacking ring designed to be worn alone or layered. A unisex style that moves easily between feminine and masculine.
• The Beaten Hoop Earrings carry the texture into a comfortable, lightweight hoop, available in recycled sterling silver, 9ct yellow or white gold, or 18ct gold-plated.
• The Beaten Mini Hoop Earrings are the smaller sibling, nestling close around the earlobe and comfortable enough to never take off.

These three pieces are the most everyday-wearable in the collection. They are the pieces clients tend to buy first.

The pearl pieces

Several Ossicle pieces use freshwater pearls, the soft and organic counterpoint to the beaten metal. Pearls in this collection are intended for occasional wear, not for daily life on the hand. Pearls are a soft material. They do not take well to gym bars, kitchens, garden tools or dishwater.

• The Salacia Ring is a heavy, textured ring that houses five freshwater pearls. Substantial, sculptural, intended for occasional wear.
• The Morgan Ring is a thick sculptural ring also set with five freshwater pearls, with the look of something carved by water over a long time.
• The Ossicle Charm Necklace is the smallest pearl piece. A textured metal dome housing a single freshwater pearl, made to sit at or near the collarbone, with three chain lengths to choose from.

These pieces are slower, more deliberate. They are not the ones you throw on in the morning. They are the ones you wear when there is something to mark.

The named pieces

A few pieces in the collection carry specific names drawn from sea-mythology or coastal place-names.

• Salacia was the Roman goddess of saltwater, wife of Neptune. The Salacia Ring, Salacia Bangle and Salacia Choker carry her name. The Bangle is sculptural and timeless, the Choker is rustically formed, both made in recycled silver, 9ct yellow gold or 18ct gold-plated silver.
• Caledonia is the ancient poetic name for Scotland, evoking rugged northern landscapes and wild coastlines. More personally, it is also the name of one of Eloise's closest friends, who commissioned one of the very first rings she ever made. The collection honours both this enduring friendship and the quiet beginnings of Eloise's jewellery practice.The Caledonia Ring is a rough, rounded band housing a watchful sapphire or garnet. Statement enough to be worn alone, and stacks effortlessly with other rings.
• Cove is what a small sheltered bay is called along the Australian coast. The Cove Charm Necklace is a rounded cove of beaten metal housing a roughly set gemstone of your choosing.
• Named after one of Eloise's closest friends, Morgan was among the first to commission a bespoke ring when Eloise began making jewellery. She also modelled this collection. The Morgan Ring is a bold, sculptural pearl design that captures the collection's understated strength and organic form.

These four names give the collection a coastal weight. Each piece is anchored to a place or a figure rather than floating on aesthetic alone.

What makes this collection different

Ossicle is the most lived-in collection in Eloise's work. The other collections look at the sea from different angles, with Naiads at the rockpool, Thetis at the deep, but Ossicle looks at the beach after the tide has gone out. At what is left, what has been carried, what has been worn smooth.

These are the materials of the in-between, the not-quite-jewel, the things you would actually find if you walked a beach at low tide and looked carefully.

The collection rewards the same kind of looking. The pieces do not announce themselves. They reveal themselves slowly, on the hand, in motion.

Owning a piece

The Ossicle pieces are made in small numbers in the Melbourne studio. They are available now at the collection page.

If you would like one of the pieces in a metal, stone or configuration that isn't currently shown, or if you would like to commission a one-of-a-kind variation drawn from the same source, Eloise takes a small number of bespoke commissions each year.

An ossicle is a bone the sea forgets. A piece of jewellery, in its own way, is what we remember.