Our Domicile

Sometime a few months after my daughter was born we were robbed. It sucked. All the things you’d expect. Feelings of violation. General yuckiness. Shock. But once that wore off, the loss that really has stuck with me, left me sad, was that of my jewelry. Aside from a few family pieces I was supposed to be custodian of, nothing was of any real value. Everything was of deep sentiment.

We got an insurance settlement (and a safe for future storage), which I’m slowly using to rebuild my jewelry collection. And, in the world of #firstworldproblems, it’s been hard. It’s really hard to take 35 years worth of memories (and I don’t say that lightly as a number were pieces I was given as a baby/before birth) in one shopping spree. So, I’ve had my eyes open and have been picking up a few things here and there. I used to have a truly vast collection of necklaces and earrings, most of which were family heirlooms or pieces made by artisans and craft people and collected by me on journeys around the world. None will ever be truly replaced.

But, a few months ago I happened upon a literal treasure trove of awesome adornments. Hopea came to me the way that much does these days, via Facebook, and in this case via an old high school who was promoting her sister’s new business venture. At the words: mid-century, Scandinavian and jewelry I was sold. So, off I went to check it out and lost a great deal of time pondering over amazing pieces.

Hopea means silver in Finnish, and is the project of Cosima Friesen, a Montreal based woman with a degree in art history who fell in love, originally, with a collection of Montreal modernist jewelry, a period that was itself heavily influenced by Scandinavian design. She then spent a year collecting and building a collection of Montreal and Scandinavian pieces and now sells them through her site. No one piece is likely to appear there again. Everything is positively elegant. Cosima profiles the makers of the pieces, tries to collect multiples from different influential designers from that period and frankly has an amazing eye for mid-century work that is entirely contemporary and very, very wearable.

I love the earring and necklace set I purchased and wear them almost daily since they arrived by post (that’s them in the photo). I’ve got my eye on a number of rings for my next purchase (how great would this be for the non-diamond loving girl’s engagement ring?) and I get totally paralyzed with decision when browsing through the necklaces. I think Cosima is onto something beautiful and brilliant here. Don’t you agree?