The Desert Rose Story
This spring and summer season, Cleopatra’s Bling releases a new collection of jewels. They tell a story of softness springing from the most unforgiving sources. Consisting of solid 18k gold, sterling silver, 18K gold-plated, and 24k Vermeil jewellery, the Desert Rose collection is a homage to this bewitching combination of the arid and the living.
A person who stumbles across this desert flower would like to pluck it from its home of unending sun, and take it to their treasure chest. The collection melds the beauty of the natural, with the innate desire to collect - to store memory in special objects that will outlast our mortal lives, and be passed as heirlooms from generation to generation.
In homage to the rose, Olivia has handcrafted these collectible items that could just as easily have been discovered in a locked wooden treasure chest. Pearl strings glow like the moon over the dunes, scarab amulets may transfigure and take flight into the sand at any moment, golden crucifixes gleam, and carved resin intaglio gems shine as red as the desert sun.
Earrings, rings, layerable necklaces, and charm bracelets harken back to childhood days of dressing up. Nonetheless, each piece is refined through handwork to reflect the maturity of a woman who has been through the desert of life, and still can bloom. Tempered by the hot sun and burnished by fate, she has not lost her childlike joy in creation, beauty, or softness.
Deep green beads represent her living suppleness, the azure “evil eye” wards off ill omens from a golden chain at her neck, Roman coins grace her ears with designs from ancient times. Each special item she collects tells a story of another aspect of her being. She is not one thing, she is as multifaceted as the delicate images etched into the resin rings on her fingers.
A new chapter of the Desert Rose story every month...
Each month a new chapter of the story will be released, with a handful of new jewels to discover.
Come with us on this journey, to hear the story of the Desert Rose, and find connection and community through beauty and shared meaning.
Chapter 2: Garden
A garden is lush and beautiful, and in need of nourishment through love, attention, and water. When our understanding is nurtured, it flourishes.
Chapter 3: Wanderer
As we move through life, we search for our calling, leaving behind what is safe, in favour of new growth and discovery.
Chapter 4: Regent
Respecting our need for strength, confidence, and safety through comfort. We offer up symbols of aesthetic pleasure, and the power of regeneration. A symbolic goal that we strive towards is found.
Chapter 5: Guardians
Recognising our need for the support and guidance of others in our community to share in our joys, and move us through our most difficult moments. We rely on the wisdom of others who came before us, as well as those who walk beside us now.
Chapter 6: Cocoon
In a dark moment, we are offered a place for reflection, and to regenerate energy for new growth. In this cocoon we may find loneliness, but also calm meditation which prepares us for what is next to come.
Chapter 7: Luck and Love
Relinquishing control is part of opening ourselves up to love. For success we need both faith and luck. In our connections to our loved ones, we emerge from the cocoon and are reborn in their eyes, blooming outwards with newly discovered colour.
Chapter 8: Resting Place
What will you find at the end of your journey? When you arrive, what precious attributes will you have brought with you, that you will retain and build upon for the next?
Join us for the Desert Rose story, and to discover new jewels each month. Sign up for our newsletter for first notifications, special offers, and insider insights into the meaning behind each new instalment.