Sumatra single bracelet

Sumatra is Java's neighbouring island, and it was born in the same workshop and from the same little girl.

One afternoon, while I was working, Fénix found a leftover piece of brass wire on the bench. She wound it round her wrist, squeezed it with her fingers until it stayed put and showed it to me the way you show someone a treasure: "Look, it doesn't fall off any more."

It had no clasp and no ornament. It was just a line that went round and stayed there, hugging. It seemed to me that nothing needed adding.

That is Sumatra: a solid wire that goes round without quite closing, with its two bevelled ends facing each other.

Sumatra isn't cut from a sheet: it begins as a solid 3 mm brass wire. It is cut to length, the ends are bevelled and it is curved by hand until the line is round and taut.

Then it is sanded and polished (and, for the matt finish, matted), and it receives the white bronze plating, the 24-carat gold plating and a final hypoallergenic coating.

Because the wire is solid, it has just the right firmness to keep its shape and just the right flexibility to adapt to you.

It is made on Calle Alameda, in Madrid's Barrio de las Letras, in a workshop you can visit. If you come by, you will probably see the next one being curved.

On its own it's the most understated piece in Sumatra, for wearing every day without a second thought.

It's designed to be combined: two or three together make a cuff with more presence.

Open it slightly to put it on and adjust it to your wrist by hand.

The hypoallergenic coating protects the piece from contact with skin and perfume. Store it dry and on its own, and avoid putting on scent while you're wearing it.

Because it is flexible, open it only as far as you need to put it on, and don't keep forcing it at the same point: that way it keeps its shape. With normal wear and this care, the gold plating lasts for years.