Shackle Cufflinks

Description

Taking traditional shackles as her starting point, and seeing their potential as wearable, as well as practical objects, Melanie has reworked the these often overlooked and mass produced components to create a pair of beautiful, yet playful cufflinks.

Melanie has heightened the object’s preciousness by recreating them in 18ct white gold plated silver. The addition of Melanie’s trademark material, the Pearl, adds a reference to water, sailing and the sea, where shackles would commonly be used. The feminine pearl as a detail on the shackle juxtaposes both the shackle’s and the cufflink’s association with masculinity.

Melanie’s gold plated, fresh water pearl cufflinks question and play with the contrast between the precious vs the non precious, the mass produced vs the one-off, the masculine vs the feminine.