Japanese Anemone

Brooch + Display Cabinet / Objet d’Art
Materials: Hand carved Mother of Pearl Shell, 18ct Yellow Gold, Sterling Silver, Green Moonstone, Ethiopian Opal, Citrine

The Japanese Anemone - Brooch merges sculpture and jewellery into one.

The main body of this brooch is carved from Mother of Pearl Shell. This is a time-consuming process of working with both wet and dry machinery as well as smaller, more precise, hand tools. Picking the right shell to use is very important, as it needs to be thick enough to allow me to carve the organic forms of each petal and to give the illusion of the petals overlapping.

The centre of the flower features a Green Moonstone set into 18ct Yellow Gold which gives a striking backdrop for this stone. Each of the Stamens have been individually crafted. I smithed the backing plate from Sterling Silver, which is then blackened and takes the form of a quatrefoil (simplistic 4 petal flower form). The front of the brooch features x3 smaller stones, representing dew drops. These stones have also been set into 18ct yellow gold which adds to the luscious colour palette of this piece. 

There is a special feature highlighting a natural flaw in the growth of the shell. Inspired by the Japanese art of repairing broken ceramics with gold, Kintsugi – the beauty of imperfections, I have chosen to highlight this flaw by filling it with gold.

This One-of-a-Kind brooch comes complete with a custom-built display cabinet to allow this piece to be displayed and admired as a piece of art when not being worn.

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