Jewellery from Nature

I have been using seaweed to create biodegradable jewellery, however, by taking seaweed out of the natural landscape, I am taking away a resource that is beneficial to local wildlife. Although I was only using very small amounts, I decided to experiment with materials that either had a negative, or no impact at all on wildlife. These are wild clay, the invasive shrub buddleia, and wool from my angora rabbit Mossy.

Buddleia is a very common shrub in the UK, which outcompetes with native plants and destroys habitats. I initially attempted to drill beads into the wood using a specially designed drill bit, however, I have found it hard to find wood thick enough to do this with.

Then I decided to add the powdered buddleia wood to the seaweed bioplastic recipe I have been developing. The seaweed used to make the agar I use in the recipe, is grown specifically to make it, so I don't think I am depriving wildlife of I food source. 

I made this necklace using alternating three different kinds of buddleia and seaweed bioplastic. The yellow and red beads contain the powdered buddleia wood and are coloured with turmeric and beetroot. The black beads contain the blended leaves of buddleia, which makes them bright green when fresh, but become dark as they dry. 

I have also been using wild clay which I collect myself. The white clay is from a small stream leading into a Devon estuary, and the red clay (green when unfired)comes from Bristol.There is something so magical about finding clay in nature. It is so widely used in our daily lives, yet few of us realise we have this free resource right at our fingertips!

I made this test bracelet to show the beautiful contrast between the white Plymouth clay and the red Bristol clay. Although I used a clasp I had left over from a broken necklace, if I decide to make and sell more of these, I would use recycled silver to make it sustainable.

I also started rolling the clay into shaped beads, and dying them with natural plant dyes. My favourites to use are elderberry, logwood and turmeric!I have threaded them onto my handspun alpaca wool, which is not as fragile as angora wool, but not as itchy as sheep wool.

The other material I have been attempting to make jewellery from is wool from Mossy.I started making braided cords using her spun wool, dying some of it with the natural dyes.

I came up with this design to include the braided angora cord, and planed to dye the different parts with different natural dyes. As you can see from the bottom image, the colours did not come out as strongly as I hoped they would! In the future I plan to use some different darker dyes, as the grey colour of Mossy's wool makes the lighter ones slightly muddy.I will also think about other mordants I could use to help to mix the dyes. Thanks for reading!