Charmed: Two Times Elliott on paying visual and tonal homage to the complex emotions of the pandemic

For many designers, mention a self-initiated project and you’d be quick to conjure images of publications, posters or other printed formats. However, London-based studio Two Times Elliott have opted for a different approach, looking to the conceptual and speculative. Charmed takes the form of jewellery – intricately researched and designed charm bracelets, to be precise. Following on from their guest article, we were curious to understand it further, speaking to the Two Times Elliott team about the fascinating project. PT: Besides producing beautiful jewellery designs, what was the fundamental idea behind Charmed? And what does it mean to Two Times Elliott as a design practice? LM: Rather than one core idea, I’d say there were a number of motives involved – from narrative angles, to aesthetic aims and technical challenges. In terms of narrative, we were particularly interested in the charm bracelet due to the spiritual and communal functions which it has held over time. In prehistory, the Babylonians and Persians emblazoned their charms with symbolic figures of gods, humans and animals etc. These were talismans – believed to bestow spiritual powers and protections upon the wearer. Today, the charm bracelet is a diverse assemblage of meaningful, decorative or precious objects and this meaning and value may be either material or sentimental. In our case, it is mainly the former, in that we are exploring a symbolism of collective emotional and psychological states through these objects. This leads into the aesthetic and technical aspects of the project – both crafting these forms and cultivating their material and textural detail in support of the concepts at play.