To mark the first anniversary of the death of president Nelson Mandela on Friday, jewellery designer, Charmaine Taylor, will launch a new range in the Legacy Collection.
The range consists of handmade pieces made from the original fence from Robben Island prison.
Her first collection was launched in November last year and the second, marking 20 years of freedom, was called Freedom XX.
“My new range is the Choice Collection, in memory of Nelson Mandela’s life and legacy,” Taylor said from her Cape Town studio.
“It is based around an X, which marks the right to vote and X plus X is 20 in Roman numerals celebrating 20 years of Democracy in South Africa. Mandela led South Africa into the first democratic election in 1994 and this collection is in honour of this landmark event.”
Since its inception, the jewellery has garnered international interest, and Charmaine hopes to make inroads into the American market next year.
Stars including Paula Abdul and Titanic actress Frances Fisher are already wearing her designs. Next year, for Mandela Day, she hopes to hold exhibitions in London and in Cape Town.
Creating jewellery from something as historically significant as the Robben Island fence is a dream come true for the jewellery designer and came about when she met Chris Swift, founder of the Robben Island Art Company & Trust (RIACT). Swift had rescued the original Robben Island fence from being taken to landfill when the prison was renovated in 2009.
As custodians of the fence, RIACT shared her belief that it could become a positive part of South Africa’s legacy and so, last year, RIACT granted Taylor permission to design artwork and gave her exclusive rights to create jewellery from the fence.
Each section of fence is carefully selected by Taylor to be cut and bonded into a piece of jewellery or artwork. For jewellery, the fence goes through a bonding and sealing process before being encased in a precious metal (gold, silver or rose gold).
“I am careful to preserve the unique ridges and grooves of the fence: the poignant scars of history lived and lessons learnt,” she says.