Octi SS27 ‘Ammonite’ Turns Water, Fossils and Sound Into Sculptural Jewellery

London-based jewellery designer Octi has introduced Ammonite for Spring/Summer 2027, translating the erosion and preservation of ammonite fossils into sculptural precious-metal forms, salt-worn textures and sapphire details. Continuing founder Octi Ransom’s interest in the golden ratio and recurring structures in nature, the collection looks at water not simply as inspiration for surface or colour, but as a force capable of altering an object while leaving its defining geometry intact.

Water as a Method of Transformation

The starting point for Ammonite is the fossil itself. Octi looks to specimens found along rivers and coastlines, focusing on the way water gradually wears their surfaces while the spiral remains recognisable.

That relationship between erosion and continuity becomes the collection’s central design language. Precious metals are worked into fluid, water-worn forms with satin and salt-weathered finishes, while sapphires appear as small points of colour intended to suggest droplets of water.

Existing Octi shapes are also reconsidered through changed proportions, finishes and textures. Interchangeable rings can be stacked and layered into different arrangements, giving the wearer a more active role in determining the final composition. Across the collection, spirals, concentric forms and repetition connect the jewellery to structures that Octi describes as both organic and mathematical.

The approach is particularly effective because the collection avoids treating the ammonite as a literal decorative motif. Instead, Octi isolates the underlying ideas that make the fossil visually distinctive — repetition, proportion, erosion and continuity — and rebuilds them through jewellery.

When Jewellery Becomes an Instrument

The collection extends beyond wearable objects through an immersive presentation co-created with sound and spatial designers Robin Sparkes and Bojan Kostović. At its centre is a sculptural instrument fitted with cymbals created by Octi and played using dripping silver finger caps, alongside a live cymatics performance in which water is used to make sound visible.

This crossover between jewellery and sound closely mirrors the brand’s own production method. Octi works with wax to capture liquid movement at a specific moment before casting it into metal, effectively freezing a transient form into something permanent.

Within the presentation, that process is applied conceptually to music. Sound, normally immaterial and temporary, is given a physical counterpart through instruments, water and metal. The brand describes this as a way of “fossilising” music — transforming something that disappears almost immediately into a structure that can be seen, touched and preserved.

Geometry, Geology and the Music of the Spheres

The presentation also references the Music of the Spheres, connecting music, geology and mathematics through rhythm, proportion and repetition. Fossils and sound become parallel systems within the collection: both are shaped by time and pattern, yet one suggests extreme permanence while the other exists only momentarily.

That opposition gives Ammonite a wider context than a conventional seasonal jewellery launch. The collection is ultimately concerned with preservation — not in the sense of keeping nature untouched, but of recording transformation.

Founded by Octi Ransom in Hackney in 2022, Octi has built its practice around translating fragments and textures from the natural world into precious metals. Its methods include moulding directly from natural surfaces such as rocks as well as hand engraving patterns and textures into individual pieces.

With Ammonite, that approach becomes increasingly interdisciplinary. Jewellery remains the physical outcome, but the collection’s language now moves through sound, space and performance as well as metal. The result is a study of what happens when something fleeting — water, movement or music — is given a form designed to last.

Creative direction for Ammonite is by Octi Ransom, with sound and spatial design by Robin Sparkes and Bojan Kostović. Kevin Adorni fabricated the metal instrument, Fishdream Productions created the cast-aluminium cymbals, Jada Ellize worked on nails, Morgan Layla Williams photographed the project and Blonstein handled show production. Fragrance sponsorship was provided by Le Labo.