As well as the mermaid pendants and rings, Shawish created one more marine-themed jewel and a very special one: the Octopus bracelet. It is crafted from rose gold and encrusted with white and champagne diamonds topped with a pale pink pearl. The first time I saw the finished jewel was at Baselworld in May and I am still very much impressed by it!
“The idea of the octopus came from the amazingly smooth way it moves and its ability to manoeuvre its tentacles in a way that is so special and mysterious,” comments Mohamed Shawesh on the creative process behind the bracelet. The uniqueness of the bracelet is not in the way it’s constructed, but in the inbuilt illuminating system. Some lights are hidden below the precious surface and glisten with different colours when the mechanism is switched on. It can be turned on and off by simply pressing a tiny button on the side of the bracelet.
Only the creator knows exactly how this ingenious system functions. However, I managed to find out that there is some sort of battery inside that makes the lights shine. It needs regular charging which happens when the bracelet is stored in a specially designed jewellery box. It took a year and a half to create this high jewellery piece. “The most challenging thing was that this was the first time a jewel like this had been made. We had to discover a new way of thinking to make a jewel that perfectly combines both traditional craftsmanship and pioneering technology”. All in all, Mohamed succeeded in combining a playful design with technical advances. No wonder he was happy with the result: “we are happy even though reaching this level of innovation has been very hard.”
