This brooch is made of powder coated steel and the little red dot is in fact a magnet which you can move around to show where you are at any given point in time. The brooch is designed by Garudio Studiage in Peckham, London, a creative collective set up by Chris Ratcliffe, Laura Cave, Anna Walsh and Hannah Havana, in 2003. They started in a ‘Garage Studio’ which is how the name came about – ‘Garudio Studiage’ and as well as making maps of the UK, Ireland, USA, Australia and France they create quirky and imaginative jewellery and screen prints for both sale and exhibitions.
Look out for October’s Brooch of the Month, when I will be featuring another brooch map by a different designer and a different country. No there isn’t a theme going on, promise.
This map was published by Braun and Hogenberg in 1572 and is believed to be one of the oldest original maps of London still in existence. The text at the bottom, in Latin, extols the wonders of the city “famed amongst many peoples for its commerce, adorned with houses and churches, distinguished by fortifications, famed for men of all arts and sciences, and lastly for its wealth in all things”.
This is the first of many not least the world famous London Tube map designed by Harry Beck in 1933 which you can find on our sister site TubeFlash where you can read stories inspired by both Brooches and London Underground – TubeFlash