A passion for design was sparked at an unusually young age. My parents were in the interior retail industry so I spent much of my childhood being dragged through trade shows, flea markets and antique fairs. After completing my schooling in Cape Town I headed to London to study further. My design degree at Central St Martins in London in the early 90’s was the beginning of an adventure that jolted me out of all that I had learnt about creating beautiful things and propelled me towards considering: “What’s the Big Idea?”. This concept has shaped much of my thinking and led me on a deep spiritual quest to ask that question about everything. After completing my degree I joined the high-pressure world of publishing - styling pages for House & Garden’s UK edition and working as shopping editor on the Telegraph Saturday Magazine. I moved back to Cape Town to raise my three children. The years of working in the interior decorating and retail world here have led me to find another passion - sculpting in bronze. My first collection is a range of desk and table top sculptures of seed pods. The idea to create the pods was inspired by a huge change to my life and are a reference to the cycles of life and beginning again. My second collection has grown into a series of totem poles, each one unique. These are created using semi precious stones and crystals combined with ceramic scared geometric shapes and bronze seedpods and are representative of my own growth and the sacred connection between nature, earth and heaven.
“For a seed to achieve its greatest expression,
it must come completely undone.
The shell cracks, its insides come out and everything changes.
To someone who doesn’t understand growth,
it would look like complete destruction.”
Cynthia Occelli
