TO SEE THE WORLD IN A GRAIN OF SAND

Sand has long been an object of fascination and obsession for artists, scientists, and thinkers. Writers from Robert Frost to Jorge Luis Borges and William Blake have penned odes to its beauty, with Blake writing that “to see the world in a grain of sand is to hold infinity in the palm of your hand.” In Indigenous cultures, there is a long history of art and storytelling created in sand, a testament to life’s impermanence. And anyone who has seen a natural pearl up close can testify to the magnificent power a single grain of sand can weild.



The curious allure of sand was also on Creative Director Sarah Munro’s mind as she crafted latest collection—an ode to the unique beauty of gemmology entitled, To see the world in a grain of sand. Every grain of sand on earth—and scientists suggest there are seven quintillions—has its own unique visual identity. Depending where on earth the sand originates, each grain will look entirely different under the lens of a microscope. The familiar sands of Bondi Beach are made of almost pure quartz, and look like a collection of colourful glass fragments when viewed up close. The golden sand beaches of Maui are a hypnotic array of tiny marine life—spiralling shells, honeycomb coral reefs. On the pure white shores of Okinawa in South Japan, sand is made from white cells that look like a constellation of tiny calcified stars. 

Taking these images as inspiration and experimenting further with her obsession with gemmology, Sarah Munro worked with coral citrines and dewy peridot cabochons to create pieces with abstract formed settings and textured clusters. There’s the SUNRAY pieces, made with pale yellow citrine and soft green peridot cabochons, bezel-set in bold and organic shell-like shapes. There's MICA, petite organic formations set with brilliant white diamonds for added iridescence. Then there’s SAND—made with diverse clusters of citrines, peridots, and white diamonds. The collection’s pieces range from rings laid with bold stone clusters to statement necklaces and delicate stud earrings, all made with SARAH & SEBASTIAN’s signature innovative craftsmanship and dedication to conceptual design.