There's an untold story behind every design, and creation, one that we often tend to overlook when we're busy admiring our favourite new wares, but with House Of Bats latest collection - Abandoned Spaces - there's more than just creativity behind their latest designs.
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Their latest collection takes designer Anna's own personal experiences with depression and turns it into wearable jewellery pieces. With a series of four talismans, each representing a different aspect of depression: fear, despair, solitude, and sorrow.
With each design based on sketches that have been hidden in a sketchbook for two years; following a spark of inspiration from a photography exhibition on the theme of abandoned buildings. Finding beauty in the decay of these buildings, reminding Anna of her mind in the throes of depression, using the shapes and shadows of these abandoned buildings to express her depression.
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It's something that we often tend to put to the backs of our minds, but mental health, depression, and particularly suicide, have been such prominent news stories of late, affecting many from the world of fashion, creative arts, and far beyond.
How we deal with depression day to day varies from person to person, and with one in four people suffering with mental health each year, it's something that we should all talk about more often.
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Whether you are struggling to cope with your own problems, or coming to terms with your own battle with mental health, it always help to reach out and talk to others, as overwhelming as it may seem. Two thirds of us will experience a mental health problem at some point in our life, so it affects us far more than you'd realise.
For each and every person, we all deal with it in a different way, for designer Anna, this new collection has been a way to express her depression through her sketches and designs, having suffered from depression for some time - taking a particular downturn five years ago.
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With the new collection of talismans representing a different aspect of depression, you can choose to use them to help with your own mental health problems, whatever they may be, or simply as a stylish piece of jewellery. For Anna, these talismans help to release her from that which holds her back, reminding her of how far she's come.
You can find out more about Anna's story and her own struggle with depression at www.houseofbats.co.uk/blog
The Abandoned Spaces collection is available now at www.houseofbats.co.uk, where you can find all four designs available, alongside a range of gothic and alternative jewellery, gifts, and accessories.
If you are struggling with mental health you can reach out at the following resources: www.mind.org.uk / www.samaritans.org / www.time-to-change.org.uk / www.mentalhealth-uk.org
Image credits: Model/Photographer/MUA: Abbysynth