James Merry brings his otherworldly organic aesthetic, as seen on Björk, to his first jewellery pieces for Dover Street Market

Who among us hasn’t dreamt of wearing one of James Merry’s masks? Often seen adorning the face of Björk (Merry works as the Icelandic icon’s co-creative director), the organic metal pieces seem to curve and sprout as if from nature itself. Now, for the first time, that same singular aesthetic is available to mere mortals when the artist debuts an eponymous capsule collection of jewellery at Dover Street Market in London.

For Merry, who has been working with silversmith and metalworking techniques on many of his latest headpieces, jewellery felt like a natural direction to take. “Adorning the human body is what I fixate on,” he says. “Just now I am moving away from the face and onto the hands and ears.” Eagle-eyed Björk fans might recognise the origin of the debut pieces – a ring and earrings – both of which reference objects the artist made for Björk’s Fossara album cover.

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The Ophyrus ring, which Merry describes as a “mini-mask for the hand” draws its name and pleasing curves from the Ophrys Apifera, or the bee-orchid. “It’s a flower that has captivated my imagination for years given its curious combination of botany and biology,” says Merry, noting that the flower mimics both the look and smell of the bees who pollinate it. Fascinated by the “state of metamorphosis”, Merry creates an imagined nature between two forms. In this case, the ring flows from the finger itself, morphing the human appendage into a flower or an otherworldly insect. Björk wore an early early prototype of the ring on the album cover.

Crafting the ring was an experience close to home for Merry, literally; he worked with the sculpture foundry Pangolin Editions, which is located in his hometown of Stroud, England. “I can even walk to them from my parents’ house for our meetings, down through a beautiful forest, so it couldn’t be closer or more local to me,” says Merry, who now lives in Reykjavík. “Witnessing their knowledge and craft close-up has been completely mind-blowing, it is such a luxury to have them in Stroud.” By pure coincidence, Merry happened upon some bee-orchids growing wild on a hillside just by the foundry.

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The Völubein earrings, meanwhile, were crafted in a nearby historic jewellery district, in Birmingham. “I did a DNA test recently and my heritage was 99.9 per cent west of England and Wales, so i think the landscape there is just really deep in my bones,” says Merry, noting that he’s “very proud” to say these pieces, like him, were all made in West England. The Völubein earring is a teeny-tiny version of the shoes worn by Björk on the album cover (the making of which was documented in an issue of Vogue Scandinavia). Both pieces are available in solid sterling silver and 23.9k plated gold (as Merry explains, they’re “hard” gold-plated, a technique which makes the gold plating more durable and long-lasting).

Teaming up with Dover Street Market for the launch was a no-brainer for Merry. “I have quite specific taste for jewellery and what I like to wear myself, the few treasured pieces that I own were bought at Dover Street,” he says. Meanwhile, this is just a taste of what’s to come from Merry, whose jewellery will soon spread to other parts of the body. “I am already starting work on a wider collection,” he says. “Which will include some new designs for the wrist and neck.”