Snowflake Set

In the winter of 1610, Fundamental hero Johannes Kepler had the problem all of us have at this time of year. He needed a New Year’s present for a friend. The friend was Johannes Matthäus Wackher von Wackenfels: imperial councillor, humanist, and the man who had first told him about Galileo’s telescope. Kepler was Imperial Mathematician to Rudolf II, a post that paid well on paper. In practice the treasury rarely paid him at all. By his own account, he had nothing to give.

Then, crossing the bridge in Prague, he watched snowflakes settle on his coat.

The Latin for snow is nix. In German, that’s nichts: nothing. So Kepler gave his friend nothing, in the form of a 24-page essay asking why every snowflake has six corners. Along the way he wrote one of the founding texts of crystallography and a conjecture about stacking spheres that took 387 years to prove.

The joke still works four centuries later because it describes every good present. The best gift is small, close to nothing, something a friend can turn over in their hands and find a whole structure inside. Kepler called snowflakes stelluae nivales, little snowy stars: cold, exact, and gone in the warmth of a palm.

Our Snowflakes are the slow version. They’re etched from solid brass in Italy and based on the first photographs of snow crystals taken under a microscope: six arms, plus the small irregularities that appear as a flake starts to melt under the lens. Brass keeps that moment for good. Hung in a window, they catch the low December sun and throw it warm across the room.

Buy the large Snowflake and we’ll add the set of three small Snowflakes for nothing. Nix.

Solid reclaimed brass, Made in Italy. Hooks included.

One big star for your own tree or window. Three little ones for the people who have everything, who need nothing from you and are always glad when it arrives. Tie one to a present, slip one into a card, keep one in a drawer for New Year’s Day.

Large Snowflake (15 cm) €19.90, with the set of three (6–8 cm, €15.90) free.