buy me: pamina jewellery

Pamina was once seen shuffling around in gutters. She was not looking for lucky pennies, but for shattered fragments of car windscreens. The American designer, named after the princess in Mozart's Magic Flute, makes jewellery from broken glass.

Shattered windscreen glass first caught her eye as she took her son to school one morning. It was glinting in the sun, and when she picked it up, she thought it looked quite beautiful. "It caught the light so brilliantly," she says.

These days, her jewellery is in demand, and she no longer hangs around theft-prone areas of London hoping for the shattering of glass. She buys windscreens from garages and takes a hammer to them herself. Her other source of raw material is bottles, but only heavy champagne and deep blue Tynant water bottles will do.

When Pamina finds glass broken into a shape she likes, she casts molten silver around it and makes it into a chunky ring (pounds 150), earrings (pounds 100), bracelets (pounds 250) or chokers (pounds 140). The jewellery feels reassuringly smooth and heavy.

Pamina's shattered glass jewellery is available from the Talisman Gallery at Harvey Nichols, Knightsbridge SW1, and to order on 0171-352 3470

TB