Pieces of Eight

Pieces of Eight Pieces of Eight is a contemporary jewellery and small object gallery in Melbourne, Australia.

We specialise in creating bespoke precious rings, working as a conduit between our clients and artists to create pieces of significance. The gallery is located in Melbourne's iconic Royal Arcade, the oldest surviving arcade in Australia. It runs from Bourke Street to Little Collins St, parallel to Elizabeth Street. Find us under the clock at Shop 27, hosted within the Melanie Katsalidis retail store.

09/09/2026

Two jewels, two expressions of nature’s beauty. ✨

The Beribboned Parti Sapphire Ring — a captivating Ceylon parti sapphire, banded in sky blue and pale yellow, takes centre stage in a diamond-accented claw setting. Neoclassical floral garlands festoon each claw, while flowing ribbon bows, accented with rubies, sweep across the shoulders of the band.

The Antheia Green Sapphire Ring — named for Antheia, Greek goddess of gardens, this luminous green oval sapphire evokes a hidden green lake surrounded by lush forest. Set within a delicate garland of diamond-accented claws, the setting flows into a decorative scroll split shank, finished with a white diamond.

Two sapphires, each with its own landscape. 🌿💎 Available now!

To the dads, the almost dads, the father figures and the ones we’re missing today: happy Father’s Day from all of us at ...
05/09/2026

To the dads, the almost dads, the father figures and the ones we’re missing today: happy Father’s Day from all of us at Pieces of Eight 🫶

Sapphire, in almost every colour you can imagine.Adored by our artists and the birthstone for September. Today sapphire ...
02/09/2026

Sapphire, in almost every colour you can imagine.

Adored by our artists and the birthstone for September. Today sapphire is our Gem School focus: eleven slides on the stone most people think they know. Corundum in every colour except red — blue, violet, green, yellow, pink, grey, and the Australian parti sapphire that holds two or three colours in the one stone. At 9 on the Mohs scale it is second in hardness only to a diamond, which is why it suits a ring worn every day.

If you are choosing one, trust your eye before the paperwork. See the stone in daylight and again under lamplight, and watch how evenly the colour holds across the face.

Swipe through, then come and see them in the flesh at 28 Russell Place. Care notes in the comments.

A Gem School series from Pieces of Eight and Melanie Katsalidis.

A crouching skeleton. A lemur with gold spots. A human eye. Pia Murphy did not plan any of them.For Tidal Wave, Pia Murp...
27/08/2026

A crouching skeleton. A lemur with gold spots. A human eye. Pia Murphy did not plan any of them.

For Tidal Wave, Pia Murphy turned to baroque pearls — irregular, already full of character — and painted them in enamel. She layered matte surface against transparent gloss to build contrast and depth without dulling the pearl’s own light. The intention was to highlight the pearl, not to emulate it.

Each form was treated less as a surface to control than as a character waiting to be drawn out. Human and animal figures emerged: a green and white creature flecked with gold, a crouching skeleton, an eye held on the curve of the shell.

Tidal Wave is showing at Pieces of Eight, 28 Russell Place until this Saturday, August 29, 2026. Swipe through the conversation, and enquire via the comments or by DM.

He painted the word amor onto a pearl.Joshua Searle works large. Immersive installations, big gestures, objects with phy...
26/08/2026

He painted the word amor onto a pearl.

Joshua Searle works large. Immersive installations, big gestures, objects with physical presence. So when Melanie Katsalidis asked him to make something for Tidal Wave, the scale of a single baroque pearl could have felt like a constraint.

“Rather than viewing the small scale as a limitation, I came to understand it as a form of concentration. Every brushstroke mattered.”

What he made is a pair of earrings called To Love is Power. A pearl is formed slowly, through patience and pressure, which makes it a natural metaphor for love as something accumulated over time. Painting amor onto each one turned it into a vessel for that idea. Less adornment, more reminder.

He is also clear-eyed about what he was holding. Pearls, like gold, carry layered histories of extraction, trade and desire. Materials are never neutral.

“Here, the pearl becomes less a symbol of possession and more a reminder that love is something we give away rather than hold onto.”

Swipe through for the full studio visit. Tidal Wave is in the gallery until this Saturday 29 August, Pieces of Eight, 28 Russell Place, Melbourne.

25/08/2026

4 Days Left
Tidal Wave closes this Saturday 29 August at 5pm.

Nine Australian artists were invited to do something rarely attempted — to paint by hand, in enamel, directly onto the surface of a baroque pearl. No sketch, no second attempt, and a surface that curves away from you and is never the same twice.

Eight pairs of earrings and one pearl-encrusted sculpture by Troy Emery. Each one an artwork made wearable, and none of them repeatable.

Thank you to Emma Coulter, Troy Emery, Betra Fraval, Lucas Grogan, Pia Murphy, Joshua Searle, Miranda Skoczek, Heather B. Swann, and Kate Tucker for taking a chance and being part of this experimental exhibition.

Four days left. 28 Russell Place, Melbourne. Until 5pm Saturday.

Not one of these pearls is the same.Julia Storey fell for these stick pearls before she knew what they would become. Lon...
24/08/2026

Not one of these pearls is the same.

Julia Storey fell for these stick pearls before she knew what they would become. Long, irregular, each one catching light differently along its length.

To hold them, she handmade 9ct yellow gold beads, then threaded the whole thing together into something that shifts and settles every time you move.

In the gallery now, or shop via the link in the carousel.

For our current exhibition Tidal Wave, gallery director Melanie Katsalidis visited visual artist Miranda Skoczek as she ...
23/08/2026

For our current exhibition Tidal Wave, gallery director Melanie Katsalidis visited visual artist Miranda Skoczek as she prepared to paint, for the first time, on baroque pearls.

Miranda painted gardens onto them in green, front and back, so there is no single correct view. It took the finest brush and a great deal of precision. Because the painted colour is green, she wanted one small point of something bright, so Melanie’s workshop set a pink sapphire in yellow gold, flush into the face of one pearl. It is also her birthstone.

Discover Miranda Skoczek’s earrings, alongside the work of eight other artists. Tidal Wave is on until 29 August at 28 Russell Place, Melbourne.

Click on product page to learn more, and Full studio visit on our Journal, link in bio.

Address

28 Russell Place
Melbourne, VIC
3000

Opening Hours

Monday 11am - 5pm
Tuesday 11am - 5pm
Wednesday 11am - 5pm
Thursday 11am - 5pm
Friday 11am - 5pm
Saturday 11am - 5pm

Telephone

+61479154790

Website

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