One the many innovations that the new National Gallery facility will be offering is a retail store that will sell branded merchandise as well pieces by some of the best of Cayman’s artisans.
Jewellery designer and maker Rachel Christ is delighted to have been asked to design an exclusive line of jewellery for the National Gallery’s store. “
I was incredibly honoured – and shocked – at first. It’s a huge thing for me to be asked, and really nice to be recognised as an artist, and up to a skill or class that they would want to include in their store,” she says.
Rachel is the creative force behind Xie Xie Designs, which has up until now only been sold through the Silver Retail Boutique at the Ritz-Carlton. She designs and crafts the delicate pieces by hand, in a small studio in her home, using silver, gemstones and pearls.
Although her designs are distinctive and unusual – she refuses to succumb to the typical tourist demand for stingray and turtle pieces – a certain Asian influence is detectable – hardly surprising given that she learned her trade in Thailand and returns to Southeast Asia every year to personally inspect and purchase the stones and pearls she needs.
The jewellery line she is designing for the National Gallery will include earrings, necklaces, rings and cuff bracelets.
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I decided to work around pearls because pearls come from the ocean,” she explains. “Although we don’t have pearls here, for me it’s amazing that a tiny piece of sand or grit in a mollusc turns into a beautiful pearl. I think you could draw some kind of parallel between pearls and the Cayman Islands. Sixty years ago, Cayman was this rugged, rough place and it’s changing every day, becoming more beautiful and spectacular. The National Gallery also started life as something quite basic and simple and over the years has been fine tuning itself and is now becoming this big, beautiful building that showcases what Cayman has to offer.”
As well as pearls, Rachel will be using blue topaz (a pale blue, translucent stone that is the exact shade of the sea off Seven Mile Beach), pale pink amethyst and mystic topaz. “Mystic topaz reminds me of the sunset,” she says, “because it changes colour and has a more pinky, purple hue.”
In terms of metals Rachel works with silver, and for this collection has drilled numerous tiny holes into discs of silver, which she says, was inspired by the way in which the sea washes onto the beach and then vanishes between the tiny holes in the sand or pebbles.
It is the uniqueness of her designs that sets Rachel’s work apart from the mainstream. As she points out, one can easily pick up what one thinks is an unusual and original piece of jewellery in, say, Bali, only to find the exact same piece being sold at markets in Italy, Brazil or Morocco.
Rachel’s designs however, are truly one of a kind, often concealing little stories or messages within.
An idea she is still turning over in her mind is for a ring and cuff bracelet that would be engraved with a uniquely Caymanian saying or phrase. Although she considered using the national motto, she is ideally looking for something more unusual. “I’d like to find something like a lullaby that Caymanian mothers would sing to their children, and take a line from that, which would be engraved on the jewellery. Then the lullaby could be printed in its entirety and included in the packaging for the piece, so that people could see where it came from and get a sense of the whole story.”
Such a piece would no doubt appeal not only to visitors but those who live in Cayman and want to take gifts home, or even those leaving the Island and wanting to take a little piece of Cayman with them.
She is still searching for the perfect phrase, however.
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