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In 2024, I founded Pindex Studio, though at the time, I didn’t really think of it as a business or even a brand. It started as a hobby, a creative outlet.
Before jewellery, I spent years collaging, keeping art journals, and collecting all sorts of small objects and bits of “junk” in my bedroom. I loved how unrelated things could come together to create new meanings and little stories. Eventually, that instinct translated naturally into jewellery-making. Charms became my collage pieces, and necklaces became my canvases.
A Life Surrounded by Visual Culture
I’m originally from Istanbul, a city shaped by layers of history and rich visual culture. Growing up there meant being surrounded by objects, textures, architecture, and stories from different eras and traditions.
Alongside this, I studied Archaeology and Art History, completing a double major in Media and Visual Arts, and later pursued a Master’s degree in Film and Screen Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London.
In many ways, I’ve always been surrounded by visual cultures, whether through museums, films, historical objects, or everyday life. Pindex Studio became a space where I could bring all of these influences together into something playful, personal, and wearable.
A Dream Collaboration
Collaborating with the V&A has felt incredibly special, and a little surreal. It brought together my love for objects, storytelling, archaeology, and visual culture in a way that felt deeply personal.
One of the most exciting parts of the process was being able to dive into the V&A’s digital archives, which are open to the public, something I deeply appreciate. I explored objects from across time periods, geographies, and materials, using them as inspiration to reimagine them as charms.
It felt a bit like archaeological research, searching, discovering, and then reinterpreting objects into new forms and narratives.
Designing the Six Pieces
I designed six pieces in total, each built around a feeling, a sensation, or a piece of cultural history, all with a playful openness to interpretation.
Selecting objects wasn’t easy. The V&A’s collection is vast, and I wanted to reflect its diversity. I chose objects that spanned different materials, functions, geographies, and historical periods, from everyday items like chairs to ritualistic architectural fragments.
My aim was to create little narratives through objects, almost like mini collages. A few elements coming together to tell a story, playful, slightly surreal, and open-ended.
This process also reminded me of one of the most fascinating ideas from archaeology: how objects and people shape each other over time, and how the material world carries its own stories.
The Collection
Abundance of Good Luck - Earrings (Available at the V&A Shop ↗)
The idea of carrying good luck charms has been part of human history for centuries. I wanted to honour this tradition with a piece that carries both symbolic meaning and playful imagery, an abundance of charms gathered like small talismans.
Beneath the Sea - Necklace (Available at the V&A Shop ↗)
This piece is inspired by objects that feel fluid, ornamental, and slightly dreamlike. A column capital sits alongside marine imagery, flowers, and curved organic forms that echo the movement of water. Together, the objects feel as if they belong to an underwater world where decoration, nature, and fantasy gently overlap.
Arcadian Romance - Necklace (Available at the V&A Shop ↗)
This necklace is inspired by an imagined romantic world. The objects feel decorative and intimate, coming together like treasured keepsakes. It plays with ideas of beauty, desire, nostalgia, and quiet wonder.
Tea Time - Earrings (Available at the V&A Shop ↗)
This piece is very close to my heart, as it feels deeply connected to home. I combined a teapot, a plate, a ceramic house figure, and a tile from Turkiye (where I’m from) to evoke the warmth of domestic rituals, the presence of pets, and the comfort found in small everyday moments.
Memories of a Chair - Necklace (Available at the V&A Shop ↗)
This piece is intentionally a little absurd and dreamlike. I imagined a chair as a character, almost as if it had its own personality and memories. The objects feel like fragments from a dream rather than a logical narrative, quirky and open to interpretation.
Comedies, Histories and Tragedies - Bracelet (Available at the V&A Shop ↗)
With objects like a Chinese mythological creature, a sheep figure, an eye with a teardrop, and the 1623 First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays, this piece feels simultaneously pastoral and epic. It’s a tribute to storytelling in its many forms.
Shakespeare’s First Folio is the reason we still have many of Shakespeare’s plays today. Published seven years after his death, it preserved 18 plays, including Macbeth, Twelfth Night, and The Tempest, that might otherwise have been lost forever. This piece is a celebration of preservation and the enduring power of the written word.
About V&A East Museum
V&A East Museum explores why we make, celebrating creativity, making, and the stories behind objects. This felt closely aligned with my own practice, where jewellery is created through collecting, assembling, and reimagining objects into new narratives.
This shared curiosity about objects, histories, and storytelling made the collaboration feel especially meaningful.
Credit: V&A East Museum © Niall Hodson
Available Now
The full Pindex Studio x V&A East Museum collection includes six pieces inspired by global histories, everyday objects, and imagined worlds.
Available at V&A East Museum and the V&A Online Shop
Thanks to the V&A team for trusting my playful, collage-like approach to storytelling through jewellery, this collaboration truly felt like two worlds colliding in the best possible way.
- Pinar ,Founder of Pindex Studio
