Palms
Category: Accessories
Competitions: Fashion Competition 2025
As an almost unseen yet omnipresent element of modern times, the palm nut underpins a variety of global industries across the globe. In the Republic of Congo, its kernel is a food waste. Palms is a jewellery collection that introduces, as a valuable creative medium the palm nut, celebrating its inherent versatility. The collection celebrates the dark woody beauty of the kernel, using recycled precious metals to elevate it to its true worth. Each piece blends artisanship with cutting-edge technology and weaves together symbols from the modern west with those of the ancient Kongo kingdoms. The kernels are reclaimed from street restaurants, sliced and shaped by the local artisans collaborating with Makila. She roasts them at low temperature in order to darken the wood of the kernels and contrast them further against the gold. The pattern is laser engraved and inspired by ancient Kongo textiles where the rhombus is often repeated and linked to a belief in life cycles and reincarnation. Makila is fascinated on how repetition, like a chorus in music, is a powerful thread in all art forms as well as in science and nature. Here, the engraved patterns bring the material to life and recalls the scales or the feathers of creature leaving in the dark shadow of the Congo Forest, the second largest after the Amazon. The metal ball point function like soften darts.
