The woman turning shark teeth into art – and saving a dying tradition

Her pieces have since traveled as far as Hollywood. One ring was gifted to Auli'i Cravalho, the actress who voiced Disney's Moana.

In her small studio in Fuvahmulah, sea glass glints alongside shark teeth, set into silver rings and pendants. Shanaan, better known as Shanu, the island's only female silversmith and the founder of Island Lore, sits behind the workbench. Warm and engaging, she speaks easily about how she came to the craft.

Shanu did not set out to become a silversmith. In 2023, she enrolled in what she thought would be a jewellery design class, something light, focusing on beaded bracelets. Instead, she found herself in a workshop of hammers, flames, and molten metal. For someone afraid of fire, it was a daunting introduction.

"I hated the first day," she recalled. She overheated a ring, burned her finger, and went home sore, with her arms aching for days. "I thought, 'I can't do this.'" 

Yet by the end of the course, she had built muscle and resilience. Her final project, a jellyfish-inspired collection, shifted her outlook entirely: "I didn't know I was capable of that until I made it. Something just clicked."

After the course was complete, she began to experiment. Sea glass collected from the beach soon found its way into her designs. For Shanu, the process of combing the shoreline is part of the craft. 

"After a long day, walking here helps me to unwind," she said. "It's one of the ways I connect with the nature of my island, my home."

That sense of connection runs through her practice. Silversmithing has become, in her words, "a meditation." Watching molten silver flow, she finds a sense of calm. Hammering, meanwhile, offers release. "It's like having my own mini rage room," she said, grinning.

In 2024, a local diver asked her to combine a shed tiger shark tooth with sea glass for a custom ring. Word spread. Divers began bringing her naturally shed teeth found on the seabed. Island Lore was born. Shanu refuses to use teeth that have been cut out, drawing a firm ethical line. She officially launched her shop that same year.

Her timing coincided with rising foreign interest in local tourism and the growing popularity of sharks in the Maldives, particularly in Fuvahmulah. Shanu's designs, made using ethically-sourced shark tooth and seaglass, struck a chord with eco-conscious visitors seeking souvenirs of local origin. Her business grew quickly. During an afternoon in her studio, she was interrupted several times by customers, locals and tourists alike, stopping in to buy or commission pieces, often with shark teeth they had found on the ocean floor during their dives. Her work has even reached far beyond Fuvahmulah’s shores. 

But her story is more than just a personal journey. Across the Maldives, traditional silversmithing is dwindling, with many of its intricate patterns at risk of disappearing. Shanu has been teaching herself traditional Maldivian silverwork, reviving the cultural art form in her own way. She has recreated goh fattaru patterns passed down from her grandmother and great-grandmother, and is now learning to make enaru fattaru.

The barriers, however, are real. The tools are expensive and require a certain amount of space; high-quality raw materials have to be sourced from international suppliers, and silversmithing in the Maldives has long been male-dominated. In Fuvahmulah, she is the first and currently only woman to practice it professionally. 

For Shanu, each piece of jewellery is a love letter to her island and its heritage. As she prepared a limited-edition collection for a Turtle Festival in Naifaru, she reflected on the unexpected path that led her here. 

"I never thought I would be doing something like this," she said. "But now, I can't imagine doing anything else."