When a love of plants meets minimalist aesthetics, the result can only be a wonderful label like Ninalu .

The jewelry I make is mostly made from recycled silver. Using sustainable materials is extremely important to me (Luka Alagiyawanna, 2017).

Berlin aesthetics and Sri Lankan nature - The label Ninalu

With her design and jewelry label Ninalu, Berlin-based Luka Alagiyawanna found a way in 2015 to combine her passion for design and aesthetics with her love of plants and nature. The trained photographer has German and Sri Lankan roots and demonstrates with her label Ninalu how beautifully these two cultures can blend.

I love being in nature. And especially when you live in Berlin like I do, you have to actively make sure you have some greenery around you. That's why I enjoy bringing plants into other people's homes and collecting things I find in nature. At the same time, I also appreciate minimalist aesthetics. With Ninalu, I somehow bring all of that together. My family comes from Berlin and Sri Lanka. With my label, I try to connect these two worlds in a way (Luka Alagiyawanna, 2017).

On the one hand, Luka creates minimalist jewelry from recycled silver in her Berlin studio. For this, Luka uses silver that she knows is both recycled and was mined without child labor.

Unfortunately, with jewelry, it's still often very difficult to trace the origin of the materials. I've experienced this myself when I've asked many companies about the source of their materials, and I frequently received the answer that they didn't know themselves. And especially when it comes to the issue of child labor in gold and silver mining, most companies can't guarantee that no children were involved in producing their silver or gold. That's why I'm so glad to have suppliers where I know the silver is recycled and that no child labor is involved (Luka Alagiyawanna, 2017).

In addition, she creates macramé (a knotting technique originating in the Orient). She knots these in different colors, and they give even the most dreary living room a jungle atmosphere.

Never stop exploring – The question of meaning in one's work

Luka tells me in our interview that she has always been a curious person who soaks up all new experiences and that meaningful professional work is very important to her:

Curiosity is incredibly important to me. I always want to learn something new and discover new things. I've always had this urge to see and learn more. I'm actually afraid of not learning anything and not experiencing anything new. But when you're self-employed, that doesn't happen automatically. You have new tasks and challenges to solve every week (Luka Alagiyawanna, 2017).

Besides her label, Luka also works as a freelance photographer. Luka loves combining these two different fields, as she tells me:

I'm generally very interested in discovering the world. I've discovered photography as my tool for getting to know the world better. When something interests me, I initiate a personal project and can use the camera to understand things I might not otherwise grasp. Design plays an important role in my life in general. I used other methods in the past, but photography has really become my way of discovering new things over the last ten years. This is especially helpful for my label Ninalu, for example, when I need product photos, and I really enjoy it (Luka Alagiyawanna, 2017).

You can find more information about Luka and her work on her website or her social media channels ( Facebook and Instagram ).