Up Helly Aa – The Breckon Collection

Each January our neighbours in Shetland celebrate Up Helly Aa, a fire festival that dates back to around 1876 and is held on the last Tuesday in January every year.

This festival celebrates the end of the Yule season and every year a new Guizer Jarl is chosen to lead a torch-lit procession culminating in the burning of a Longship Galley which symbolises the sending of Viking spirits to Valhalla.

In 2008 the Guizer Jarl was Roy Leask who chose to portray a character from the Viking Sagas that reflected his family’s link to Orkney.

Roy’s daughter and her family live on Orkney so it seemed fitting that Roy should decide to portray Kol Kalison who supervised the building of the St Magnus Cathedral here on Orkney.

Sheila has been designing a bespoke piece of jewellery for each one of the Guizer Jarl’s wives for a long time now and in 2008 Roy and Sheila collaborated to create a piece which was inspired by the wave design on one of three carved stones in St Magnus Chapel.

When it came to naming the collection there could only be one choice; Breckon beach is the Leask family’s favourite place in Shetland and the name of the Longship Galley used for the festival in 2008.

When we photographed the collection for our website we asked Roy’s daughter Rhona to model for us and the green hue of the enamelled jewellery looked wonderful beside her gorgeous red hair and pale skin.

It’s fitting that the Breckon collection should be named after a beach as the jewellery itself is so reflective of the waves as they lap onto the shore and the deep blue and green colours of the enamel really add to this.

Since the first piece was created Sheila has added much more to the collection and we now offer four different styles of earrings as well as a necklet, 3 different pendants, cufflinks and a bracelet.

You can find the Breckon collection here and ask us any questions you might have by giving us a call.