Natural Object Jewellery

The first type of organic jewellery that is mentioned in the Virtual Gallery of Contemporary Jewellery’s paper on Organic Jewellery is the use of natural objects that were once living, such as bone, leaves, shell, skins and wood to create objects of jewellery. Before precious gems and metals were discovered in prehistoric times, people adorned themselves with pieces of bone, wood, teeth and animal skins to create organic jewellery. The use of natural objects in jewellery is the oldest form of jewellery known in history. When people discovered gold and gemstones, we saw a great transformation in the way that jewellery was made, people started producing jewellery from precious materials and this became the norm. Today, the bulk of jewellery that is manufactured in the world is made out of precious metals and gems, but with the rise in contemporary jewellery artists, we begin to see more jewellery that is being made with unconventional materials including natural objects.

Hilde de Decker showing a ring wearing a green tomato. This is an example of natural objects being used in jewellery

Kenneth Quickenden Virtual Gallery of Contemporary Jewellery

Kenneth Quickenden Virtual Gallery of Contemporary Jewellery

Contemporary jewellery is ‘contemporary’ not only because of its creation in the time of now, but also because of its non-conventional nature and that it engages with a number of “contemporary, social, environmental, technical, artistic trends” (Quickenden 2000) and that there is a similarity between the definitions of art jewellery and contemporary jewellery due to this. In this research report, there will be a focus on one main type of contemporary, Organic Contemporary Jewellery as its definition gives us a better insight into the types of jewellery that are created to echo the natural world in form and movement. 

See the image below, it shows an example of organic representational jewellery:

Dobbler, G., Brooch Oxidized Silver, Citrine