Sarah Emilie Müllertz on Inspiration Behind The Bricks Collection
In this conversation, founder and creative director Sarah Emilie Müllertz shares the thoughts and observations behind the collection - from the stillness of morning swims to the architectural rhythm of Copenhagen, and how these worlds come together in form.
Through Sarah’s perspective, the Bricks Collection becomes a meeting point between worlds - water and stone, nature and architecture. It reflects a way of seeing: attentive, grounded, and shaped by rhythm.
What begins as a morning ritual and a walk through the city becomes jewellery - a quiet translation of place, material, and memory.
Water, Colour, and the Morning Ritual
Q: Your work often begins with something very personal. Can you tell us about your connection to water and how it influenced this collection?
"For me, the sea has become a daily ritual - something I return to every morning. It’s a moment of stillness before the day begins, where everything feels quieter and more grounded. Swimming is not just physical; it’s a way of reconnecting - with nature, but also with myself.
What I notice most is the colour. It’s never the same. Some mornings the surface is almost golden, reflecting the early light. Other days it shifts into deep blues, greens, or even something close to black. There’s a constant movement, a subtle transformation that happens without effort.
That experience stays with me. It’s not something I try to replicate directly, but it shapes how I think about colour - as something fluid, something alive. The Bricks Collection carries that feeling. It holds this idea that colour is not fixed, but always responding - to light, to movement, to time."
The Connection to Sapphires
Q: How did that experience translate into your choice of Queensland sapphires?
"It felt very intuitive. When I first encountered the sapphires from Queensland, I immediately recognised something familiar in them. They carry that same spectrum I see in the water - from lighter, almost golden tones to deeper blues and green hues.
What I find compelling is that no two stones are the same. Each one holds its own variation, its own depth. There’s a sense of individuality, but also of continuity - they all belong to the same landscape, the same natural system.
During my visit to the mines, I was struck by the environment itself. The way the land is layered, how everything is formed slowly over time - it mirrors something architectural, almost structured, even though it’s entirely natural. That connection between nature and structure became very important for the collection.
The sapphires don’t just add colour - they carry a sense of place. They bring the landscape into the piece, in a very quiet and honest way."
Copenhagen, Architecture, and Bricks
Q: The collection is also deeply rooted in Copenhagen. What draws you to its architecture?
"Copenhagen is built in brick - it’s part of our identity. It’s a material that has been used for generations, and over time it has developed into something more than just functional. It becomes a language.
What I find particularly inspiring is the work of architects like Kay Fisker. There’s a discipline in his approach - a focus on proportion, repetition, and detail. But within that discipline, there’s also subtle variation. Small shifts in pattern, in placement, in colour. It’s not loud or expressive in an obvious way, but it’s deeply considered.
You have to slow down to really see it. When you walk through the city, when you move close to the buildings, you start to notice these details - the rhythm of the bricks, the way light moves across the surface. It’s quiet, but it stays with you.
That sense of rhythm and restraint became a foundation for the Bricks Collection."
Translating Architecture into Jewellery
Q: How did you translate these architectural principles into jewellery?
"It started with focusing on the brick bond - the way bricks are arranged in a repeating pattern of solid and void. That structure creates rhythm, and I wanted to bring that into the pieces.
In the collection, this becomes a sequence of open and closed elements. There’s a balance between weight and lightness, between structure and space. It’s quite minimal, but it carries a strong sense of order.
At the same time, jewellery is worn on the body, so it needs to move. What is static in architecture becomes dynamic here. The rhythm shifts as the piece moves, as light changes, as it interacts with the person wearing it.
The sapphires introduce another layer - variation within the structure. Just like in brickwork, where no façade is completely uniform, the stones bring subtle differences in tone and depth.
For me, the collection is about translating something deeply familiar into a new scale. Taking the architecture we live with every day and reinterpreting it into something more intimate - something you can carry with you."
“For me, the blueprint of Copenhagen is found in the pattern of its bricks and the colour of the water. Bringing these two elements together felt completely natural - it simply made sense. From a design perspective, it also became a way of honouring these beautiful traditions, both in the stone and the gemstones, but also in Copenhagen itself. It reflects the blueprint of where we live - the places I move through every day, riding my bike across the city.”
With Love,
Sarah Emilie Müllertz