Maarja Palu

Silver, From an Island of Seven Hundred.

Kihnu is a small island off the coast of Estonia where around seven hundred people still wear traditional dress, sing the old songs and make things by hand, not for the benefit of visitors but because nobody has yet given them a convincing reason to stop. Maarja Palu grew up there, went off to the mainland to study metalwork, and came back with the slightly alarming ambition of doing as little as possible, extremely well.

Her jewellery is minimal to the point of being quietly stubborn about it. A silver circle. A bar through a circle. A pair of rods bent into a U and left, admirably, at that. She says minimalism is the harder challenge, which is exactly the sort of thing one says when one is very good at it, and she is. Every piece is made by hand once you order it, which takes a few days, and which is a small price to pay for owning something nobody else rushed.

For more to wear, have a browse of our earrings and the full jewellery collection. If it's a present, see our gifts for her. There are more businesses like this one in women-led brands, and more from that part of the world in our Baltic brands.