Design Spot 5

Akaroa-based New Zealand jeweller, Peter McKay likens his Metaphysical Heart brooches to miniature soap operas – “I like to set up little plays and tensions, little scenes where human dramas play out.” He considers jewellery “a vehicle for storytelling” and whatever his ‘frame’ – heart, arch, dog tag, his little cast of recurring characters – girl, crow, boat, crucifix, Brancusi column – combine to create captivating miniature silver ‘worlds.’ Very much inspired by art and the Surrealist movement, he’s never “bought into that whole South Pacifica stone, bone, shell thing.” Instead, he suggested with a wry grin when I interviewed him last week, “we in the south grit our teeth and look toward the southerly, leaving those in the Auckland to stare toward the heat of the tropics.”