Golem, a necklace with ice instead of jewels

You put on a necklace, and its jewels gradually shrink. When you look at the falling water drops, the remaining time comes to your mind before the sparkle. This necklace is not carved out of a material that looks like diamonds, but is actually made of ice as decoration.

‘ooOoooOoooOh la l’ice’, created by architecture and design studio GOLEM and jewelry artist Laila El Mehelmy, is worn by placing ice between silver beads. This work was also introduced at the Paradise Row exhibition in London in 2022. Rather than a new release, it is an earlier experiment that reverses the expectation of jewelry as something enduring.

Accessories starting from the freezer

There is a dedicated silicone mold so you can recreate the ice decorations. Even after the ice melts and disappears, the silver necklace remains. The large bead marks the spot where the ice was placed and becomes the spot for re-freezing next time.

Here, the process of preparing jewelry changes from opening a storage box to opening a freezer. Rather than wearing the finished product as is, the person using it takes part in its completion for a while. There is no need to throw away the necklace even if all the ice disappears. The same silver beads remain, ready for another form of the necklace.

Water instead of diamonds

The creator explains that the idea came from seeing people cooling off with ice in a hot Berlin club. It is also a joke that literally changes the slang word for diamond, ‘ice.’ Frozen water takes the place usually reserved for expensive stones.

The 2022 introduction states that the ice will last approximately 30 minutes, but actual melting time will vary depending on ambient temperature and wearing conditions. Rather than reading this time as a performance figure, we pay attention to the fact that it is an object that continuously changes its shape while worn.

A necklace that shows change instead of promising that it will not change for a long time. Even after the last drop of water falls, there is still room between the silver beads for the next ice.