It feels like summer most of the time here, but right now at the height of the actual season, when the orange trees are bursting with fruit and enormous bumble bees are buzzing around my yard, I feel that it is time again to showcase jewelry which celebrates nature.
Most of the jewelers below where found on the excellent blog The CarrotBox
Saskia Bostelmann works in many different styles from the natural to the geometric and in many mediums as well. I found her pieces inspired by antique lace but made out of recycled measuring tapes, magazines and post-it notes very interesting.
Most striking however were her "hybrid" pieces of mix materials, as shown here.
Carrie Garrot's work is soft and subtle in a way that one might expect from pieces made with petals and wax, yet it has a unique air about it. She describes her fragile works as illustrating the transience of nature, and this they truly do. The wax softens and blurs the petals but also gives them a slightly deteriorated feel, as if the viewer/wearer is actually experiencing the piece as it ages and wilts, yet it then seems to hold them right at that moment before they lose their inherent beauty.
Carrie's "bottle" works feel as if they are attempting to preserve the beauty of nature, as if the flowers were bottled into formaldehyde in order to keep their vivacity. She also achieves tremendous movement in these pieces considering the seeming stiffness of the use of the "bottles".
Japanese artist Shinjo Nakaba creates spectacular works out of mixed materials, often recycled and always stunning in their composition, as if he is creating an arrangement rather than a piece of body adornment.
It is thrilling to see what he can accomplish with used plastic bottles, resin and steel. Also, as you may have noticed, I am always interested to see the process. Excitingly included on his website are in-progress pictures so that you can understand a bit more about both the process and the materials. That is truly great to see.
Jewelry blogger 18k also featured Nakaba today, so it is fitting that I found this last artist on her blog.
Danish jeweler Alidra Alic's "Alice's Adventure's In Wonderland" series is a self-interpretation of the novel itself and floral motifs of the late 1880's with a "self-invented" plastic technique. They are naturalistic and yet surrealistic at the same time. They are imbued with a similar feeling of deterioration as the pieces by Carrie Garrott, and yet they are girlishly-powdery, sinister and innocent at the same time.
The photographic display of the jewels and their context is lovely to have as well.
