Jewellery store Aetla has teamed up with writer Kate Matthams for Terrane, a show exploring the relationship between jewellers, the land and a sense of place

By Rachael Taylor

Jewellery by Alice Cicolini (left) and Emefa Cole (right) on display at Terrane in Edinburgh.

There is no better – or busier – time to be in Edinburgh than August. The city is teeming with life as the Edinburgh International Festival and Fringe bring in tourists hoping to catch one of the 54,000 performances that take place at myriad venues across town.

I boarded a train bound for Scotland to join the crowds for opening day last week, but rather than heading to a comedy show or contemporary theatre troupe, my first stop was St Stephen Street in Stockbridge – possibly one of Edinburgh’s most charming shopping streets (and certainly one of my favourites).

The St Stephen Street is home to contemporary jewellery store Aetla, which offers up a considered edit by its founder Keira Wraae-Stewart. It is also – for one month only – home to Terrane, a jewellery exhibition curated by writer and editor Kate Matthams and presented by Aetla during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (on from now until August 31st).

XL Chisel ring by Castro Smith; Lola Fenhirst’s Indigo PIT ring with bright-blue aluminium colour matched to the central lapis lazuli.

Jewels that capture a sense of place

Terrane is an exploration of the relationship between jewellery designers and the landscapes that inspire their work. And also, Matthams says, “a sense of place” – which is a theme she finds herself returning to again and again in her writing.

To capture this, Matthams has selected the work of 11 designers for Terrane: Alice Cicolini, Castro Smith, Ellis Mhairi Cameron, Nada Ghazal, Melanie Georgacopoulos, Ruth Tomlinson, Inesa Kovalova, Sarah Madeleine Bru, Megan Brown, Emefa Cole and Lola Fenhirst.

The collections on display at 17 St Stephen Street (a separate gallery space on the opposite side of the street to the Aetla store) offer up a diverse interpretation of the theme. Lola Fenhirst’s bright-blue aluminium Indigo PIT rings take inspiration from the historic Kofar Mata dye pits in northern Nigeria, while Ellis Mhairi Cameron’s textured gold jewels are shaped by archaeological finds on her family farm in Scotland. Megan Brown’s woven designs have their roots in North Yorkshire as an echo of the region’s history of textile production, and Ruth Tomlinson’s Rahassa Sapphires collection tells the tale of her recent journey to Sri Lanka to source gemstones.

Inesa Kovalova’s titanium, gold and diamond Memoir brooch with a 29-carat colour-changing Ukrainian wine topaz; Iona necklace by Sarah Madeleine Bru, with a drop shaped from marble gathered by hand on the Scottish island of Iona.

A deep longing for home

Matthams says that Terrane is “united by a shared consideration of how place shapes making”. She continues: “Rather than depicting scenery directly, Terrane considers the quieter ways the place informs creative practice. Surface, texture, colour and material carry experience, reflecting both lived and remembered environments.”

Sometimes it can be the materials that connect the jewels to the land, as with Sarah Madeleine Bru’s choice of Scottish agates. Other times, the craft is what makes the connection, as with Castro Smith’s signature engraving style, which he studied in Japan.

For Inesa Kovalova, the titanium and gold and Memoir brooch topped with a 29-carat colour-changing Ukrainian wine topaz that she has loaned to the Terrane exhibition is a deeply emotional link to her roots. “The piece evokes a deep sense of longing for home, turning the brooch into a tactile object that feels like a smooth pebble – precious, personal, and rooted in memory,” says the designer who was born in Ukraine. “As the topaz’s colour shifts, the brooch becomes a symbol of both transformation and the fleeting purity of moments captured in time.”

Aetla owner Keira Wraae-Stewart, Amy Wilson who runs PR for Aetla and Terrane, and Kate Matthams, writer and curator of the Terrane exhibition.

Left to right: Aetla owner Keira Wraae-Stewart, Amy Wilson who runs PR for Aetla and Terrane, and Kate Matthams, writer and curator of the Terrane exhibition.

Award-winning Scottish interiors

To help extend Mattham’s vision for Terrane beyond the jewellery cabinets in the exhibition space, Aetla collaborated with Bard, a gallery and store in Edinburgh’s Leith that specialises in Scottish craft and design.

Bard brought in sculptural furniture and objects for Terrane by Scottish maker Oliver Spendley that tie in perfectly with the theme of the show. These include Spendley’s Otherlands IV low table made of charred, hand-gouged Highland Douglas fir set on Lewisian Gneiss and Pegmatite boulders that pierce through the wooden surface, which won the House & Garden x Sotheby's Craft Prize 2026.

Terrane is open to the public for the duration of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, until August 31st at 17 St Stephen Street in Stockbridge, Edinburgh.