A jewel of time sculpted by the nature of Texas
Cultus Artem launches a capsule collection inspired by the arid landscapes and intimate memories of southern Texas called “The Flats”
In Cultus Artem’s most recent capsule — a fragrance, skincare and fine jewelry house based in San Antonio — art meets the desert and transforms the arid terrain of southern Texas into a polished treasure. Titled The Flats, the collection created by Holly Tupper, the brand’s founder and designer, is an ode to the dry geography and the affections cultivated on her family’s ranch, located along the historic Camino Real, a Spanish colonial-era route.
There, among the chaparral vegetation and the sand shaped by rattlesnakes, javelinas and wild boars, the landscape becomes both matter and memory. Each piece in the collection carries this ancestral topography: shimmering mica sifted from dust, weathered metals unearthed beneath the sun, organic forms cast in 18-karat gold. A meticulous work, where time is as much a sculptor as the artist.
The gems evoke the desert flora: purple sapphires recall verbena after rain, while red spinels and garnets reflect the deep red of cactus fruit. Nothing is literal, everything is sensation.
Among the highlights is the Novillo earring, named after one of the ranch’s pastures, where layers of textured gold meld with metallic spirals and embedded diamonds, evoking fossils revealed by erosion. The Memento Amore pendant, encrusted with spinels, houses a porcelain disc scented with one of the house’s signature fragrances, merging memory, aroma and material. The Emerald Chimes ring references a piece of old metal mesh salvaged from the sand and reimagined with a belt of raw emeralds.
More than adornments, the pieces of The Flats are poetic relics. They capture not just a landscape but the silence between nature and creation. It is the story told without words, in the shine of an uneven surface, in the voids filled with memory.
About the Cultus Artem
Founded by Holly Tupper, Cultus Artem was born in the 1990s in Singapore and repositioned in 2015 in the United States. Today, it produces fragrances, cosmetics and jewelry in small runs, using traditional techniques and a refined sensory approach.
The name — from Latin cultus (care, ornament) and artem (art) — reflects the brand’s essence: transforming rare materials into profound experiences. With The Flats, Cultus Artem reaffirms its commitment to beauty that spans time — silent, intimate and unforgettable.
