The pieces in Against Nature are both object and jewel.  Life-size, these 18k gold sculptures immortalize the increasingly threatened flowers found in hedgerows and verges, in the margins between the wild and the cultivated. 

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​Liminal in their status – for many they are seen as weeds – these plants are often overlooked.  Seeking to redress this balance, each flower is hand-rendered in gold sheet and wire; celebrating them, drawing attention to their sculptural qualities.  But Midas’s touch also traps them in a moment, they are unchanging; they become at once both natural and un-natural. 

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​For millennia, flowers have been used to adorn humankind, Against Nature seeks to reciprocate this simple action.  Each piece comes apart to be earrings, a brooch or pendant.  The wearer, as in nature, can pluck the flower head from the stem and put it in their ear, or button hole.  A simple ritual but one which goes to the essence of jewellery. 
 

PHOTOGRAPHY: ANDREW STEEL