Spiritual mediation

 According to Bruce Metcalf's (1998), there are three traditional functions of jewellery: spiritual mediation, redeemable wealth, and social status. I feel my organic jewellery fits into the spiritual mediation category. Like Metcalf states(1998), "For as long as we know, jewellery has been associated with the spiritual," because sacred symbols are made portable.

But sacred symbols do not always have to be religious, according to Merriam Webster Dictionary (Anon n.d.), the word sacred can mean "deserving respect”. There are many things that deserve respect that could be considered sacred, such as nature. 

Kay Milton (1999) explains how nature that is untouched by humans is sacred and worth conserving, probably because it is increasingly difficult to find nature that is untouched by humans. Therefore, our personal experiences in nature that is or may seem untouched are what makes it sacred to us. The beauty of nature is that the process of growth does not rely on human interactions and continues regardless. I agree with Milton’s view that if we are to conserve the sanctity of the natural world, we need to protect nature outside of humans from human influence. 

Bowe, K., (2020). Untouched. naturally planted garden tomatoes.

Organic overview - Liz Oliver

The Art of Jewellery Design by Liz Oliver has an interesting overview of the organic concept (2002:98-103). Olver explains that ‘organic’ refers to work that is derived from nature that influences the jeweller's inspiration, materials, process and design.

Inspiration for almost everything has an element that can be found in nature including shapes, textures, materials, colours and forms. Nature can stimulate all our senses which fuel the design process by sparking inspiration. For example, the taste is stimulated by flavours and food, smell by floral scents, hearing by animal calls, touch by textures and sight by patterns. I would say sight is the sense that influences my inspiration.

The design process can be described as organic even if the final design does not resemble anything organic. Letting the design evolve during the creative process and making it more random adds to the natural feel of organic jewellery. "Organic forms can be immortalized through processes such as casting and electroforming,"(2002:100) I have done this by casting plants and it can be seen in figure 1 where sycamore seed pods were cast and used in a brooch.

Curvaceous lines and abstract forms are seen as natural. Figure 2 is an example of leaves that were used to design abstract natural forms to create jewellery pieces. Even though there is a lot of examples of symmetry in nature there is probably an equal amount of asymmetry which is why I chose organic jewellery. I do not like making symmetrical jewellery because I find it is almost impossible to create symmetrical or identical jewellery pieces as no two pieces are ever the same.

Figure 1- Olver, L.,(2002).
Cast silver seed pods brooch with stones 

Figure 2 - Olver, L., (2002). abstract jewellery forms 

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.