My Designs

I create pieces of jewellery in which the leatherback turtle and what it represents form the foundation of my creative world. 

The leatherback turtle is my totem because it embodies everything I seek to convey through Honu Handmade Jewellery and my designs.

It moves slowly, yet nothing about it lacks power. It crosses the oceans, returns to the beaches, follows invisible paths and holds within its body a memory older than our own.

Its shell already tells its story. It bears seven keels, seven deep lines that structure its silhouette like a natural signature.

These lines move me because they speak of direction, perseverance and substance. They also reflect the craftsman’s touch, the one who traces, hammers, carves and shapes until the perfect balance is found. 

The Luth lives between two worlds.
She belongs to the ocean but returns to the land to give birth. She dives into the depths then rises towards the light. She connects the water, the sand, the moon, the stars and life beginning anew.

For me, it embodies this threshold; it embodies Kalunga.

She connects my workshop to the Living and my designs to a responsibility greater than creation itself. She reminds me that a piece of jewellery can be born from the hand, respect the material, and uphold what it inspires.

The leatherback turtle is a calm force, imposing its presence without a sound, traversing time with patience, resilience, endurance and robustness.

But its future remains fragile, and that is also why it matters to me.

Making it the Honu Handmade Jewellery totem is a choice of living symbol; looking at it instils a sense of conscious creation, active slowness and high standards. 

The leatherback inspires me because it keeps moving forward.

Despite the distances, despite the dangers. Despite everything.

It bears its hulls like an ancient memory, a witness to the history of humanity.
And I, through Honu, seek to express this memory in material, in gesture, in jewellery and in commitment.

 

Isabelle Bénatouil
Jewellery Artist