Geraldine Fenn and Eric Loubser's home in the Joburg suburb of Melville, where they live with their two boys, Hugo and Felix, is a little like a treasure chest. Which is appropriate, because they are two of SA's most exciting contemporary jewellery designers.
He doesn't mean sentimental in the sense of being nostalgic or indulging rose-tinted ideas about the past. Rather, it's a sensibility that expresses itself in a curiosity about people's relationships with their personal histories, and a fascination with the artefacts of the past and how they carry meaning in the present.
"I never really start out with a fixed idea of what I want to do," she says. Rather, many of her jewellery designs start with something that catches her eye, combines with something else and starts advancing associations and forming something larger than itself. Eric's explorations of cute and Eastern aesthetics adds another layer to the range of influences, often in the form of ceramic figures, such as those by friend and collaborator Frank van Reenen, whose"Shy Girl" sculpture tries to hide in a corner of the living room.
Heirlooms are sometimes integrated with furniture. The outdoor dining table on the patio, for example, has been surfaced with a mosaic that incorporates copper etching plates from Geraldine's grandfather. Past and present collide in other pieces: a Queen Anne-style chair is upholstered in African wax-print fabric and Victorian lamp stands have been topped with lampshades in contemporary African prints.