Olha
The vyshyvanka, and why I bring it into my jewellery
The embroidery on the traditional Ukrainian shirt isn't decoration. Every motif says something, and I wanted it to keep saying it in a different form.
The vyshyvanka is the embroidered shirt that has been worn in Ukraine for centuries. What sets it apart isn't that it's embroidered, it's that the embroidery has grammar.
Diamonds speak of cultivated land. Broken lines speak of water. The eight-pointed star is one of the oldest recurring shapes, appearing in embroidery from long before anyone wrote anything down about it. The colours aren't free either: red and black dominate the centre of the country, and each region has its own combination.
Bringing that into a piece of jewellery means deciding what to keep. I keep the geometry, since that's what carries the meaning, and I allow myself to change the palette: the same lattice in lavender stops being an occasion piece and becomes something you can wear on a Tuesday.
I don't do it out of nostalgia. I do it because a pattern that has survived hundreds of years unchanged deserves to keep circulating, even if it's now hanging from an ear. Those pieces live in Ukrainian heritage.
