The Story
Certain Stars was born in Broadstairs, a small town on the Kent coast where the sea is never very far away and the sky feels unusually large.
The original idea came from moldavite. Formed by the impact of a meteorite millions of years ago, this strange green stone, with all its associations with space, transformation and a certain amount of chaos, seemed an unlikely and intriguing starting point for men’s jewellery. We wanted to use it differently, particularly as a faceted stone, and build a collection around it.
From there, a wider world began to emerge.
Background
Certain Stars makes substantial jewellery in sterling silver, combining it with unexpected materials: black mother of pearl, flashes of pink enamel, moldavite, oxidised surfaces and decorative details. Our pieces play with the traditional boundaries between masculine and feminine. They have weight and presence without being blunt; decoration without delicacy.
Our influences are similarly mixed. There is the sea and landscape around Broadstairs, but also music, fashion, British subculture, rave culture and sportswear. Squid, skulls, roses and stars appear along the way. We borrow enthusiastically from the things we love and aren’t particularly interested in following a prescribed idea of what men’s jewellery is supposed to look like.
Identity
The ideas may begin with meteorites, squid and the sea, but the finished pieces are resolutely physical. Certain Stars jewellery is designed in Broadstairs and made in Britain, working with experienced jewellers and craftspeople to turn those ideas into substantial pieces of sterling silver. Traditional jewellery making techniques sit alongside modern design and production methods, with particular attention paid to weight, finish, detail and the way a piece feels when it is worn. These are pieces designed to be lived in, worn often and kept.
Broadstairs
Broadstairs remains at the centre of it all. Certain Stars was conceived here and continues to be designed here. It’s our own small universe: a place shaped by tides, weather, community and the slightly peculiar character of an English seaside town. Look in one direction and there is the sea; look in the other and there are the stars.
The name Certain Stars comes from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in a passage where the sea and stars collide. That meeting of the mysterious worlds above and below seemed a natural fit.
Certain Stars sits somewhere in those contradictions: substantial but detailed, masculine with a feminine edge, contemporary but fascinated by the past, serious about making jewellery without being too serious about everything else.
Born on the Kent coast. Designed in Broadstairs. Made in the UK.
Certain Stars. Chart your own course.
