Made In Memory

What does space, sculpture and a good story say when it can be understood through a wearable script? We speak to Rui, founder of local jewellery brand Days of Ever (Doe), to discover how a meditation on design and time can transform even the grandest of spectacles into idyllic, intimate forever spaces.

- by Charmaine Tan

HOW DID THE BRAND NAME DAYS OF EVER COME ABOUT?

Days of Ever sits between the transient and the lasting. The word “Days” reflects fleeting moments, while “Ever” speaks to the enduring. And it’s appropriate how it all comes together with the softness of “Doe”.

HOW DID YOU DEVELOP A FONDNESS FOR JEWELLERY?

I've always collected small things — a stone, a piece of metal, something that reminded me of somewhere I'd been. I didn’t realise it then, I think I was learning how to notice, how to hold a moment by keeping a fragment of it close. Looking back, my fondness for jewellery began in the same way. I still remember the first piece I ever felt attached to, a necklace my grandfather gave me. Since then, I've collected jewellery and objects in the same way: pieces that carry sentiment and form that feels meaningful.

AS OBJECTS OF SENTIMENT, WHAT’S A PIECE OF JEWELLERY THAT HOLDS SPECIAL MEANING TO YOU?

The Valley of the Moon Necklace. There’s a place in northern Chile where the desert looks like the surface of the moon. Valle de la Luna, or The Valley of the Moon, features all red clay dunes, wide open space, and a stillness so vast it makes you quiet without trying. It felt like another planet: still and surreal, yet grounding. I took a lot of photos of the light, texture of the earth, and the shadows that moved slowly across the dunes while I was there. In all that stillness, I felt incredibly small, but also grounded.

That memory shaped the necklace — the undulating landscape of the dunes and the moon hanging like punctuation in the sky. It's a piece that carries a place I never wanted to forget.