New Collection: of Earth By Dear Rae

WORDS Amelia Brown IMAGES Caroline Mackintosh

Cape Town-based jewellery design studio Dear Rae’s latest collection – of EARTH – is a tribute to Mother Nature, with a percentage of the proceeds going to small-scale farmers.

Owner and jewellery designer Karin Rae Matthee was initially inspired to explore a botanical theme, but as she drew and immersed herself in the process she found it evolving into a larger, more encompassing concept. In celebration of the natural world and our interconnectedness, the collection’s sculptural and organic forms are intended to mimic the raw shapes and textures of plants, landscapes and the human body.

of EARTH

She is the warm sand beneath your feet
The ocean in midsummer heat

She is the perfumed soil after rain
The full moon easing your pain

She is the tapestry of a wildflower hill 
The beasts and the forests they fill

She is Nature

When she thrives, we thrive
When she trembles, we tremble

Delicately powerful
she is poetry in a planet

Trace your fingers along her lines
and heed yourself in her words

Surrender to her rhythm
Follow her flow
Observe her composition
and know;

You are a visiting verse
You are of Earth

The range of pendants and necklaces, rings, earrings and bracelets, some set with gemstones, are designed in sterling silver and 9ct yellow gold, and also feature limited once-off stone pieces.

“I decided to use opaque minerals in this collection,” explains Karin. “The fact that they are not necessarily seen as precious or even semi-precious gems, I find that their incredible beauty is often overlooked. I wanted to use this range as a platform to reveal their raw, unpolished and unfaceted magnificence. These are treasures that remind us to return to nature. To return to ourselves. To return back down to Earth.”

To acknowledge the timing and broader context of the release of the collection, and support the belief that collaboration will lead to a more sustainable future, Dear Rae has pledged to donate 5% of all profits from of EARTH to the Umthunzi Farming Community, a social business founded in response to the difficulties small-scale farmers are facing.

of EARTH is available to shop online at dearrae.co.za. Follow Dear Rae on Instagram (@dearrae) for updates and take a virtual look inside the jewellery design studio’s beautiful Cape Town retail store here.