Lito Fine Jewelry marks its 25th anniversary with Cosmic Guardians, a new collection by Greek designer Lito Karakostanoglou that places preserved scarabs at the center of a series of sculptural fine jewelry pieces. Blending mythology, natural history, and craftsmanship, the collection transforms real beetles into luminous wearable objects suspended between ornament and artifact.
For centuries, scarabs have carried powerful symbolic meaning across different cultures, associated with rebirth and protection in ancient Egypt, resilience in Japanese culture, and vitality throughout parts of the pre-Columbian world. Their forms later fascinated Victorian collectors and became recurring motifs within Art Nouveau jewelry and decorative arts. Yet for Karakostanoglou, the fascination is equally visual: the iridescent surfaces, shifting colors, and sculptural geometry of the insects themselves became the starting point for the collection.
Rather than simply referencing scarab imagery, Cosmic Guardians incorporates actual preserved beetles encased within compositions of 18K gold and precious stones. The fourteen-piece collection also includes specially created porcelain “habitats,” extending the project beyond jewelry into something closer to collectible art objects.
Karakostanoglou’s relationship with scarabs began years earlier during travels in Egypt, where she first encountered the insects and became drawn to both their symbolism and physical beauty. That fascination later evolved into earlier scarab-inspired works, eventually leading her back to the motif for the brand’s anniversary collection.
The decision to use real scarabs emerged from an appreciation for qualities impossible to reproduce artificially. Their natural chromatic depth and metallic iridescence became central to the project’s visual language. Preserving those surfaces while transforming the insects into wearable objects, however, required an unusually delicate process balancing taxidermy techniques with traditional goldsmithing.
Inside the designer’s Athens workshop, artisans developed intricate settings designed to protect the fragile beetles while leaving as much of their luminous exoskeleton exposed as possible. Gold structures function less as decorative frames and more as protective architectural shells surrounding the insects without overpowering them.
Through Cosmic Guardians, Lito Fine Jewelry blurs the boundary between nature and ornament, creating pieces that feel simultaneously ancient and futuristic. The collection reflects the designer’s longstanding interest in symbolism, transformation, and material experimentation while also serving as a meditation on the impossibility of replicating the complexity of the natural world itself.
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Photo: (c) Thanassis Krikis