This is my Collection of Classics. I've created it having in mind the versatility of these jewels.

Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453 and, less than ten years later, Fatih Mehmet ordered the construction of the Topkapi Sarayi Palace overlooking the Bosphorus. It remained the seat of the Ottoman Sultans until 1853. The ring designs Topkapi One and Topkapi Two were inspired by the Ottoman treasures.

Fresh from my recent trip to India, I spent an afternoon in the V&A museum's Indian galleries, and there, in a small cabinet on the side, was a gold necklace. Unusually the necklace was threaded on a heavy black cord, almost a rope. Along its length, evenly spaced, were golden amulets with wonderfully deeply-engraved textures and all of them with differing outlines. As I read about it from the notes inside the cabinet, I learnt that it had come from southern India - as part of a dowry. The gold pendants, I realised, represented seed pods.