Mairy Jewellery was born from a love of craft, a celebration of beauty and a fascination with cultural anthropology.
Jewellery’s origins are deeply connected to human communication, symbolism and beliefs. Since jewellery serves no real practical function (like keeping you warm) its purpose is purely what is projected onto it by the people who make and wear it. Like other forms of art, it can be used as a lens to understand our civilisation.
A wonderful example of this are 41 perforated shell beads that were found at the Blombos Cave site in South Africa. An ancient human had searched for these shells in an estuary, discarded the ones that were too small, or that didn’t match in colour, or maybe that were already damaged. They then carefully drilled a small hole in each, and strung it on a cord, where with time it wore against the thread, clothes and other beads. It’s even possible they embellished it further by colouring it with ochre, traces of which were found within the small shells by the archaeologists who found them ~75,000 years later.
The existence of such beads serves as evidence of the use of symbolism, a crucial element of modern human behaviour, occurring much earlier than previously thought. The discovery extends our understanding of human development back by an immense 30,000 years, predating even the creation of cave art. It’s incredible that a little shell necklace (something we still wear today) is significant enough to force us to rethink the very development of modern humans.
Although we wish they were, we accept our pieces may not be as significant as to make future generations question the very development of behavioural modernity. We do though want to convey our excitement in how jewellery itself is inextricably linked to the human experience. From a Middle Palaeolithic shell necklace, an Ancient Roman gold hoop earring, a Medieval era enamel pendant to a 2000s plastic friendship bracelet: humankind has indulged in personal adornment.
It is truly a thrill to be part of this ongoing story of jewellery, and to use the same forms, functions and materials that have been employed for tens of thousands of years across the world.
Jewellery has always been worn for a wide variety of reasons. We wish to provide pieces even just for the most simple pleasure of wearing something beautiful that can bring you joy (surely our ancestors had some of the same reasoning?). We hope for our jewellery to be a celebration of human culture, connected to the crafts past, present and future.
