Digby & Iona

When I first heard the name, Digby & Iona, I thought it sounded like the title of a gaelic legend of star-crossed lovers. I wondered if their names were carried on the wind from the lips of people who used to whisper of their tragic story...but that’s really not the case. The names actually come from seaside towns that a man named Aaron Ruff once visited. All the same, Ruff’s jewellery collections will inspire you to imagine wildly and delve deep into histories you never knew.


I’d been praying that someone will buy some of his stunning jewellery pieces as a gift, but halfway through my plans of how to coerce someone into doing so, I realised that actually I didn’t quite want that because when I look at his pieces (which I do all too often) I feel they’re the kind of thing that would just... appear. Not in a puff of smoke, as if by magic. But just be sitting in a little unassuming box on your doorstep. A little miracle just waiting to happen. And you’d pick it up, and look around, confused. So you’d open it, curious but not really expecting anything. And there it would be inside. A whole other world. And that would like magic.

To my mind, Ruff’s pieces are tokens from epic tales that are rich with secrets. They’re the missing pieces that, hundreds of years ago, somebody was searching high and low for and today, just by chance, you found it at your feet. Or they could be treasures that someone lost a long time ago or that they left in a pebble pond on a cold, isolated shore, in the hopes that one day you would discover it.

It seems that Aaron Ruff is not simply a jeweller. He is a story teller, spinning worlds into the pieces he crafts.

And the best part about the jewellery is that it feels so alive...

This is the poignant Lost Love Compass, a working compass that is "Suitable for pursuing either an object of affection or loathing!"

 The lovely filigreed spyglass is also fully functioning:

 

This is the melancholy and somehow fairytale-like Caged Sparrow on a Swing necklace:

Here are the bewitching coral and snowflake rings, from his utterly compelling Vestige collection:

You can get regal with this Elephant ring, which can come with ruby encrusted eyes(!!)

Or if you're feeling romantic, you could give someone you love the charming Stump Ring. Get your own initials carved into a perpetual nature.

These last two are my favourites. A Portrait of an Honest Sober Man. The witty title and delicate detail make it seem like a frozen scene in a story to me. I can't help wondering who this man could have been and what intricate unsolved mysteries might surround him.

And of course, the future lawyer in me is entirely in love with the Law in Six Parts necklace. It transports me to an era I know nothing about - one of gunfights and cowboys - by capturing its feeling and encapsulating it in here:

For me, Digby and Iona is pirate ships and writing in ink with quills. It’s tall tales, sagas and oral histories retold through the ages. But really, it’s anything and everything because it is all the beautiful, dark and fascinating corners of the world locked into jewellery. Aaron Ruff really has got his own wickedly beautiful kind of magic.

See more of Digby and Iona here and here. 
 
 
(...Who knew I could get so into jewellery...?!)