Miky Rose

Cape Town born jeweller Mikhela Hawker grew up in the seaside village of Kommetjie on the Cape Point peninsula, South Africa. Her brand, Miky Rose, was founded in her love for both the technical details of refined jewellery making as a craft and her pleasure in working with metals and natural stones.

Through her work as the designer of her products, she channels her deep love for nature, especially the beach and the treasures found on our shores, in her design process.

A two-minute walk from her studio, she visits the beach at dawn each day, with her rescue dogs Kudu and Leo and finds inspiration. The meditative aspects of being immersed in nature on our shorelines and the joys of finding exquisite, perfect shells is reflected in her jewellery.

All of her pieces are hand cast using the lost wax technique, a 6000-year-old method of casting significant objects through molten metal that is poured into a duplicate mould. In Mikhela’s process, the mould is derived from the original shells she collects off her favourite Cape Point Beach.

Using oceanic treasures as the departure point in her design process Mikhela works with the simplicity of delicate singular shell pieces and also delves into inspired once-off statement designs in a great celebration of our oceans’ treasures.

Her range extends to abstracted shell works where the natural forms and texture of these artefacts meet. Mikhela incorporates colour in selected ranges through the use of precious and semi-precious stones in her collection, from labradorite and tsavorite (an unusual stone found only in Africa) to diamonds and emeralds.

The breadth of design seen in her ranges is wearable on all types of occasions, from that piece you keep on and never take off to her bespoke showstopper pieces for special events.