PHOTOS Jan Ras WORDS Nadine Botha
Your body is a temple, and now you can accessorise it appropriately with Michael Cope’s miniature shrines set on rings.
“I’ve always been fascinated by jewellery’s potential to mark out a piece of personalised or sacred space on the body,” says goldsmith and poet Michael Cope. Inspired by Jewish betrothal rings from the Italian Renaissance that depicted miniature temples, he has created a series of rings, including the three shown here made of silver and agate, and silver and paua shell.
Each building is significant. One, containing a bust of Voltaire, is dedicated to reason (top), another recalls an ancestor who was the rector of a Norman church in Staffordshire (middle) and the third captures the memory of a holiday in Tuscany (bottom). The perfect gift for the person who has it all.
The rings are priced from R2 000 to R3 000 from Michael Cope and the Casa Labia Cultural Centre in Muizenberg, Cape Town.
Michael Cope 021 788 2083, cope.co.za, [email protected]
Casa Labia Cultural Centre 021 788 6068, casalabia.co.za
