The many inspirations of Sophie Bille Brahe

The Danish jewellery designer namechecks ‘Mother of Modernism’ Georgia O’Keeffe as a muse

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A list of some of the things Sophie Bille Brahe likes: curlicue-leafed ferns; her Border collie Snoop; and grilled lobster followed by citrus Granita served in hollowed-out lemons, both prepared by her chef brother Frederik. A list of inspirations that have influenced Bille Brahe’s jewellery designs: starry night skies; flower arrangements by Danish author and Out of Africa memoirist Karen Blixen; Italian Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli; and The Four Elements, a 1961 mobile sculpture by Alexander Calder that rises 30ft high outside the Moderna Museet, Stockholm’s museum of contemporary art.

In Bille Brahe’s hands, such esoteric inspirations are never taken literally, instead setting the scene for her creations rather than dictating them. “For me, working is my way of expressing thoughts, of organising life around me,” she explains on the phone from Copenhagen, mentioning notebooks and mementos that she has kept since childhood. “Sometimes, I think the best pieces I have done are pieces I knew I would do my whole life. Somehow, they have always been there.”

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