Organic

According to Kenneth Quickend (2000), organic design debates modern design and echoes nature even if it is not made from organic materials. Organic jewellery is often defined as being derived from animal or vegetable matter but organic materials are not as widely available as they once were because nature is currently under threat by global warming. 

Jewellers can help slow these negative impacts by refusing to use materials from endangered species such as ivory. I choose to be one of those jewellers and preserve nature by not using organic materials that will affect the environment. The majority of jewellers dealing with environmental issues are women, which is significant as women are traditionally associated with nature. 

Interest in organic themes express cycles of growth, decay, death and renewal through forms, structures, and colour. Organic imagery can be seen everywhere with a return to softer designs using asymmetry and softer flowing lines.  

Gilles Jonemann loves modern society and explores the possibilities of combining organic and other materials in a complex way that express different values. The natural fragile urchin is combined with the durable strength of a modern material like resin which can be seen in the image below, thus conserving nature. Similarly way, I preserve my leaf skeletons in epoxy and my succulents by casting them.

Jonemann, G., (n.d). Urchin ring. Silver, sea urchin and resin.