Caught by the beach in Pichulik

Walking about in your fully fledged ensemble without complementary accessories can be likened to staying in a house without a single picture or painting. It’s not inherently wrong. Still, it does feel like the blatantly empty walls could do with one or two paintings to bring your interior together. There is an incompleteness about these scenarios that can’t quite be described. There is the sense of an unpunctuated sentence.

Set on a mission to punctuate the remarkable journey and story of any woman who knocks at their door is Pichulik. Per their mission statement: “Pichulik uses the language of African artistry and ornamentation to honour the bravery and beauty innate to all women, everywhere, echoed in the words, ‘You are Enough.’”

It is unclear when and by whom the sentiment of being enough was coined, but it has seen its rise in spaces of womanhood in recent years. Its messaging centralises and intends to assure women, whose collective existence holds the remnants of history’s patriarchal social constructions and deterrent gender dynamics, that they are plentiful in and of themselves and that they have meaningful voices.

Founded by Katherine-Mary Pichulik in 2013 and having grown into a team of determined and dynamic women, the Pichulik brand specialises in jewellery and accessories hand crafted using materials such as woven rope, cast brass and symbolic gemstones. Each piece is said to be made by a single creator with a great mastery over their craft from beginning to end. Their design practice sits at the crossroads of fine artistry and decorative functionality that could also invite the impression of engaging with or adorning oneself with art pieces. Even more so, the works by Pichulik have the markings of “ancient traditions and cultures” from Africa and around the world, and this gives them their artistic marrow.

October 2024 saw the launch of their most recent drop of accessories: Mer Season 1 2025. This collection derives its name and focal meaning from the mermaid – the alluring and ancient figure that has been occupying the hamlets of folkloric cultures across the globe. According to the launch statement, “The Mer collection is an allegory for self-exploration and our capacity to shapeshift through our lives.” These thematics demonstrate a harnessing of the virtue and lessons from popular tales of the mermaid. It also highlights the figure’s appeal to human curiosity while underscoring the caution needed to rouse cognisance of the perils associated with its mythical presence. As SA enters beach season – a time of leisurely connectedness and reflection, the “transformation, self-discovery and alchemy” symbolism of the mermaid rings even louder.

Pichulik’s Mer comprises earrings, bracelets, necklaces, belt and handbag pieces that reverberate a bohemian style and are shaped to tie the wearer to a state of returning to the free-spirited nature of simplistic avant-gardism. Terrene colours such as beige, olive green, aqua blue, sunset orange and golden brass emphasise a groundedness emblematic of nature and its resources. The collection “marks a significant moment in the evolution of the House of Pichulik, with the introduction of our new handwoven Mermaid bag and the Clotho belt. Both pieces embrace the codes of the house – a fascination with the tactile and creative possibility of rope, sacred knots and weaving, combined with accents of cast-brass.”

The Wave earrings stand out the most. They shaped like three loops connected at the gold-plated cap attached to the hook, resembling drops of water from a tap. In design, they become a miniaturised play of the rippling ocean in the mermaid figure’s backdrop. The Nereida, a Spanish and Greek word for “sea nymph”, is a necklace that can be changed in length. This piece draws on connotations of femininity, beauty and the sea. The neck loop is attached to an oval that presumably speaks to a panoramic view of the circle of life within the collection’s themes. Woven ropes interlocked with each other form the Mermaid shoulder bag’s exterior, with six braided strings held together by leather to make its handle. It echoes the idea of bags as an extension of feminine collective identity; a vessel that represents a woman’s societal repute and carries her mysteries. Moreover, every piece changes shape in some way to signify women’s shape-shifting nature, as they stretch themselves throughout life’s demands. 

The pieces invoke a sense of feminine ascendancy and a woman’s proclamation of her self-sufficiency. Pichulik’s deep messaging nudges at an innate desire to activate feminine narratives into open spaces and their depths, much like screaming out your name towards the open sea as an act of release or celebration.