
NATURA MORTA
"It's all about preserving an instant," says jeweller Christopher Thompson Royds, whose Natura Morta (Italian for "still life") collection immortalises everything from white clover to buttercups. Tracing around the stems and petals of pressed wild flowers (Kensal Rise cemetery in west London is apparently one of his hotspots), Thompson Royds hand cuts them in layers of paper thin gold or silver, binding them with fine gold wire. It's a process he compares to "tying up roses in the garden". Each piece is housed in a marbled folio box, an allusion to the Hans Sloane Herbarium at the Natural History Museum.
Aimee Farrell, THE FINANCIAL TIMES, 2016

NATURA MORTA: BUTTERCUP
STUD EARRINGS
18K GOLD, HAND PAINTED

NATURE MORTA: BUTTERCUP
NECKLACE
18K GOLD, HAND PAINTED

NATURA MORTA: POPPY
DROP EARRINGS
18K GOLD & DIAMOND, HANDPAINTED

NATURA MORTA: RED CAMPION
NECKLACE
STERLING SILVER, HAND PAINTED

NATURA MORTA: CONRFLOWER
DROP EARRINGS
18K GOLD & DIAMOND, HANDPAINTED

NATURA MORTA: CORNFLOWER
NECKLACE
18K GOLD, HANDPAINTED