Matilde Mozanegga creates jewellery that is more than adornment. For her, it can be ritual, reassurance and, at times, something close to medicine. A graduate of Central Saint Martins, she began developing this idea during the pandemic, when a loved one was hospitalised with Covid and the wider upheaval sharpened questions around mental health and care. She found comfort in small daily acts: making the bed carefully, choosing what to wear, fastening on a favourite piece of jewellery.
That thinking now runs through her work. Rings, earrings and necklaces hold interchangeable stones and 3D-printed elements in playful hues, inviting the wearer to choose according to mood, instinct or need. The medical metaphor is made literal in her collections Chromo-Dope and Chromo-Fine, where gemstones are presented in blister-style packaging handmade in Milan. Behind the playfulness is considerable technical precision, with Matilde working across CAD modelling, mounting, stone setting and stone cutting, and spending years developing the patented mechanisms that make the interchangeable pieces possible.
Across it, and for this year’s new-talent showcase Shine, exhibitor Matilde shares the same belief: that jewellery can invite us to slow down, trust our instincts and discover something grounding in what we choose to wear.
‘I honestly can’t remember a time when I wasn’t making jewellery. I started when I was about two or three, collecting tiny objects from trips or things I found, and there was already something in that process that I still recognise in my work today. Working on a very small scale with objects that feel personal to me puts me into an incredibly grounding, almost healing state. That feeling has stayed with me and become an important source of inspiration.
When I discovered jewellery design was something I could study as a degree, I applied to Central Saint Martins despite not having a traditional design background in Italy. Studying there opened up my understanding of what jewellery could be, both technically and materially.’
Contemporary Fine Jewellery with an Unexpected Edge
‘I focus on contemporary fine jewellery, but I like to take it in unexpected, futuristic and sometimes controversial directions. A lot of that comes through technical challenges, particularly stone setting. I set all of my own pieces, and pushing what stone setting can do often shapes both the aesthetic and the design process. My main techniques include CAD modelling, mounting, stone setting and stone cutting. One of the more unconventional developments is my tension-set rings, where the stone is held almost from above rather than protected around the sides in the traditional way.
I like taking the established language of jewellery and deliberately doing the opposite of what you expect. Those pieces took a long time to develop because they still needed to be secure, wearable and finished to a very high standard. I want someone to look at them and wonder how the stone can possibly be held there. That same technical problem-solving runs through my interchangeable pieces. The opening and closing mechanism took years to perfect because it needed to be both practical and elegant, and it is now patented.
I also don’t want the work to be restricted by traditional ideas around gemstones. Some interchangeable pieces use synthetic materials, including recycled plastic and 3D-printed TPU. One of the “stones” has a soft, bouncy quality almost like a sweet, with iridescent colours that give it a playful, dreamy quality.’
Chromo-Fine and Jewellery as a Self-Care Ritual
‘The collection I’m presenting is called Chromo-Fine, which developed from Chromo-Dope. The name Chromo-Dope connects to the ancient Greek concept of pharmakon, which can refer to something healing but also potentially poisonous. I was fascinated by that contradiction and its connection to our modern language around pharmaceuticals.
The idea for the work emerged during the pandemic, when my father became seriously ill with Covid and was admitted to intensive care in Milan. During that period, very small acts of self-care kept me grounded: making the bed with love, arranging flowers or simply completing an everyday task with my full attention.
I began asking myself how I could translate that feeling into jewellery. That was where the idea of interchangeability began: creating pieces that require the wearer to stop, interact with them and make a conscious choice. We often put jewellery on automatically. I’m interested in turning that into a mindful ritual, where dedicating attention and care to an object can become a small act of self-care.
My teaching experience strengthened that idea. After the first stage of the pandemic, I began working as a teaching assistant and later found myself teaching groups of around 25 people online during another lockdown. Seeing the confidence students gained from completing something tangible reinforced my belief that jewellery can offer something beyond decoration.’
‘The visual language of Chromo-Dope was inspired by medical blister packs: the idea of consuming jewellery almost as though it were medicine. I draw on ideas from chromotherapy and crystal therapy, allowing wearers to interchange stones according to their mood or what they feel drawn towards. The packaging resembles a pharmaceutical blister pack, so the stones can be popped out almost like tablets, accompanied by a leaflet containing poetic and intuitive prompts. I wanted those prompts to remain open rather than prescribing what somebody should feel.
I’m also fascinated by placebo and the relationship between belief and experience. That led me to think about jewellery as a symbolic or talismanic reminder of the strength we already carry within ourselves. The blister-pack imagery is deliberately provocative, but the jewellery is not intended as a substitute for medication or professional treatment; it exists as another form of personal ritual and reassurance.
The packaging is handmade in Italy using recycled materials by a small workshop I work with directly. It’s important to me to understand who is making each element and under what circumstances, and for the more complex pieces the jewellery, mechanism and packaging are developed together from the beginning. Aesthetically, I’m influenced by artists such as Damien Hirst. The work is minimal in appearance while still having a sculptural quality.’
‘My favourite pieces are probably my pearl earrings. One design combines a large freshwater pearl with a pepita stud – a faceted piece of metal shaped almost like a gemstone. I like that play between traditional jewellery language and unconventional materials. Pearls have also become particularly meaningful to me. When I started researching them, their symbolism felt connected to the stage of life I was experiencing. I became fascinated by their associations with patience, resilience, femininity, water and intuition. I also simply feel good when I wear them. They give me a sense of lightness, and I’d love to explore them more deeply in future work.’
‘Being chosen for Shine feels like recognition that I’m on the right path and that the work has potential to grow. The pieces are very personal to me, so having them understood and recognised for what I’m trying to communicate means a great deal. Jewellery making can also be quite isolating, so the sense of community is especially valuable.
I’m looking forward to the Shine pop-up, meeting the other participants in person and putting everything I’ve learned throughout the programme into practice. My strongest connections with clients often happen face to face. When I can explain the story behind a piece directly, that story becomes part of the object for the person who eventually owns it.
I initially had quite a specific idea of who my client would be, but I’ve realised there isn’t really an age group attached to the work.
I have clients in their eighties and others in their twenties, but they often share a similar mindset. They tend to be creative people – journalists, therapists, lecturers, designers or architects – for whom what they wear isn’t simply decorative but says something about what they believe in. People often ask which gemstone they should wear based on things like their birth month. I prefer to ask which stone they actually feel drawn towards. For me, that intuitive choice is much more interesting than being told what something is supposed to mean. I like the idea of somebody developing their own emotional relationship with a colour, material or object.’
Motherhood and What Comes Next
‘The next body of work I want to develop is inspired by motherhood. My baby is almost 14 months old, and becoming a mother has been completely transformative. I feel a strong need to bring more intuition and playfulness back into my making and reconnect with the hands-on, childlike relationship with small objects that first drew me towards jewellery.
Looking back, I can see that my collections often correspond with emotional milestones in my life, even though I’ve never planned that consciously. This change in my identity now feels like something I need to express through the work.
I also want to continue collaborating with digital artists. Over the past few years, those collaborations have placed my jewellery into ethereal, dreamlike environments and allowed me to create a visual world around the work that would be difficult to achieve through a conventional photoshoot. I’m excited to explore much more of that as the practice develops.’
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