The Breakers Collection
01. Three rings in various states of finish
2023, Sterling silver, Collection of the artist
In 2023 Melanie Eddy was awarded a Winter Residency Distinguished Fellowship to attend a two-week artist residency at Penland School of Craft in North Carolina. The three rings shown here are in-progress pieces which she designed and cast whilst at Penland using the lost wax casting method. The rings, which are shown in various stages of finish, illustrate the process of preparing the metal surface following casting.
It is a method which Eddy first learned whilst working at Gem Cellar in Hamilton, Bermuda during summers and holidays from 1998-2002. “I’m thankful that my jewellery journey started at the Gem Cellar which had its own in-house casting facility where I got to learn on the job, gaining insights into the lost wax casting process from wax through to cast metal pieces,” says Eddy. “The facilities at my disposal at Penland allowed me to be hands-on with this process in its entirety again.”
03. Swell Cuff
2024, Sterling silver, Collection of the artist
The Swell cuff was the first piece in the Breakers Collection to be designed and cast into metal in Melanie Eddy’s London studio. Keen to take the initial explorations of form for the Breakers Collection into a larger scale for the first time, Eddy gravitated to the wrist as an area to approach.
“Amongst many cultures, cuffs and bangles are important forms of jewellery with cultural significance,” she explains. “Amongst West Africans and their diaspora, bangles and cuffs have a deep meaning and history – albeit a history of reclamation and freedom. From use within the machinations of the trade of enslaved peoples, to use amongst the free peoples of Africa and the diaspora to celebrate and mark the special occasions of birth, baptisms, engagements and weddings, they became a symbol of freedom and powerful talismans of protection.”
04. Breakers Ring Set
2024, Set of two rings, Sterling silver, Collection of the artist
This is the first ring set Melanie Eddy designed in the Breakers Collection, working free of templates. One profile of each ring is informed by an organic shape, “the shape formed by the North Atlantic currents as they swirl around Bermuda and the Sargasso Sea,” explains Eddy.
“There are four currents which form the North Atlantic Gyre, a clockwise-circulating system of ocean currents. The most influential is the Gulf Stream, which passes just west of Bermuda and whose eddies frequently surround the island. The other currents are the North Atlantic Current to the north, the Canary Current to the east and the North Atlantic Equatorial Current to the south. These currents, which continue to shape our island, had a great bearing on the formation of the transatlantic economy, the Triangle of Trade, and fostered connections throughout the Atlantic basin that shaped our island’s history and culture.”