INTERVIEWS
Natalie Benmayor, Designer and Founder of Capsule Eleven, was named Pantone’s Artist of the Year 2025. Her jewellery blends futuristic themes with influences drawn from her heritage. As we continue to celebrate 20 years of the RJC, we spoke with Natalie about her forward-looking approach to design. We hope to spotlight more creators like her as part of our ongoing commitment to celebrating art and beauty within the jewellery world.
Capsule Eleven was created amidst the global upheaval in 2020 where I sought to create an avant-garde jewellery brand that encapsulated the concept of spiritual high fashion and Egyptian Futurism. My family story inspired the brand concept and gave it its name. My Grandparents and Dad aged four were exiled from Egypt for their Jewish religion and left by boat as refugees smuggling out nothing but their jewels. They arrived in London and the box was locked up in a vault which had been used in the James Bond film Gold Finger to represent Fort Knocks. Fourteen years ago, we were told the vault was shutting as the bank was being transformed into the grand hotel the NED London. The rediscovery of the box of jewellery represented to me a family time capsule. I considered what I would put in a time capsule during the pandemic to be discovered in the future to represent what I felt people would want. These were pieces that went beyond design and that were empowering, genderless, meaningful, good energy, sustainable and inclusive. I saw a space in the market for a contemporary spiritual brand that didn’t follow the typical bohemian mould. I am also fascinated by angel numbers and eleven is a high vibrational number that is about manifesting your greatest goals.
Jewellery to me is an incredible piece of personal story telling and self-expression. I believe that our most sentimental and treasured pieces are the ones that become part of who we are and cater to our emotional needs and empower us. That’s why I love modern talismans.
My dual heritage being British born and half Egyptian has been hugely influential on me as a designer. I grew up in Devon fascinated by crystals from a young age, and they were also a highly significant part of Egyptian jewellery and an ancient culture that believed in the power of amulets, energetic crystal properties and magic. I wanted to re-invent the ancient Egyptian amulet for the modern day. My positive experiences with crystal and reiki healing inspired me to create our signature piece, a pendant that opens to interchange crystals allowing you to wear the energy or power you seek. The sleek, contemporary capsule shaped design gives the feeling of a futuristic scarab and bares the eye symbol in the centre, a universal symbol of protection. I also draw on other ancient Egyptian symbols and concepts when designing our entire range.
The relationship between the space cosmos and spirituality has always been deeply intertwined. When I was developing Capsule Eleven I contemplated what spirituality would look like in the future in terms of visual genres. The capsule jewellery shape of our signature pieces evokes the feeling of a space capsule, an amulet for the future. Capsule Eleven is deep rooted in story-telling and through each piece I want to take the wearer through an odyssey of time, weaving together the essence of ancient Egypt with a high-end futuristic collection. In terms of materials, I have also started working with tektites from both Egypt and the Czech Republic which were formed between 18 and 27 million years ago from meteorite collisions where the heat and the impact crystalised to forge them. These rare stones are said to be the most powerful on the planet for personal transformation and as personal talismans of protection. The ancient Egyptians were fascinated by the magic of the heavens and King Tutankhamun even had the Sahara tektite, a beautiful yellow colour reminiscent of the sun, carved into a scarab on one of his personal jewellery breast plates found in his tomb.
Powerful Egyptian symbolism is key to every single one of our pieces. I love product innovation and want to make our symbols either function or become an integral part of the construction of the piece. For example, we took the eye, the universal symbol of protection and made it into a clip to fasten the piece, a metaphor the third eye opening- personal intuition. And the pyramid symbol of strength is hand carved into a unique stone cut embedded into our jewel beneath range that is inspired by archaeological finds and the digging and chipping away at rocks to find hidden gems and our inner power. Symbols also set the tone for how I want the wearer to feel when they wear the pieces, and we engrave the Egyptian symbol for ‘was’ – the staff the Pharaoh’s carried for personal power and domination into the inside of all our rings.
My recent spiritual retreat to Egypt was incredible and I went everywhere from Alexandria where my family were from, to the South sailing the Nile to visit the temples and ended back at The Great Pyramids of Giza. The trip was also a perfect next chapter of my journey off the back of my TedX Brighton talk where I told my family story. It was great to return to the ancient lands and build new inspiring memories and experiences. Our retreat was guided by an incredible Egyptologist, and I learnt so much more about the ancient Gods and Goddesses which really resonated with me as did certain glyphs, so I plan to build more of that into the collection. I love cats and have a pet black cat called Pharaoh so Bastet the cat God and Sekhmet the lioness is going to be a feature for the next collection and the energies they represent. I also brought back tektite crystal which I hand sourced and personally charged in the King’s chamber of the Great Pyramids of Giza when I was over there and plan to do a limited run of this within our signature capsule crystal line.
Sustainability is at the core of our brand, and we consider this in many ways. All our metals are recycled as is our packaging, and our crystals and gemstones are ethically sourced. We also design pieces that are made to last and through their deep ancient symbols create an experience that transcends time. Our fine jewellery range provides timeless keepsakes to be treasured forever. I also believe that the more meaning and personalisation you give to jewellery the less likely it is to be thrown away. For example, interchanging crystals according to your mood, emotional needs or colour coordinating them to your outfit gives the pieces greater relevance to changing demands and situations in contemporary modern life. I want to allow customers to have a deep personal relationship with their piece so that they simultaneously get good energy through a protective amulet and it becomes part of their personal identity.
I believe in the unique energetic properties of different crystals, so it honestly changes depending on what I am seeking at the time, which is again why I made our interchangeable design. Currently I am in the mood for bold, fiery moves and creativity so I am wearing carnelian to help with this which was also a popular gemstone in ancient Egypt.
My biggest tip is finding what makes you most unique as a designer and be true to that vision to stand out as the industry is so saturated. You’ll also enjoy your work more and always have a reason to keep going. Have strong values, seek and work with strong mentors if you are lucky enough to find them as you can avoid a lot of mistakes this way and keep motivated. I also find having a strong group around you who are also striving for great things helps immensely as you can support each other. It’s incredible what skills you can learn if you put your mind to it. If you are starting your own brand, unless you are lucky enough to have investment from the get-go, you have to deal with all aspects yourself not just design. Building your own network of contacts can feel daunting but it’s so important and so rewarding to nurture them.
As a genderless brand I love the idea that all jewellery can be unisex. It would be great to get to a point where more online platforms don’t have the category divide which would encourage inclusivity more. We don’t divide on the Capsule Eleven website for this reason. Sustainability and ethics being the norm is really important, and I think the better the education on this is in schools from as early as possible will help filter it through the industry for the new wave of designers. A positive thing I have noticed across my years in the industry is the more the demand goes up for sustainable product the more factories and packaging companies are striving to meet the certification and improve their practices for example offering recycled metals has become more accessible and it used to be much harder to find.
