Pod Necklace

Pod Necklace, 2008

My love for plants has existed throughout my life. As a child, my parents would tell us to "go play outside!", whenever the weather was nice, and that's what we did. We climbed trees, and in those tall leafy bushes that aren't trees but have structural support enough to hold children. We built forts, played games, jumped over creeks, and hid amongst leaves. My interest in actually planting gardens didn't start until my late teens, when I would help water my mother's plants and discovered amazing colors and textures. The first house I moved into when I left home had some foliage in great need of care...I often took it upon myself to water the poor wilting roses and trim the ivy as well as I knew how to do.

It wasn't until I moved to Australia for 4 years that my love for plants really took off...the amazing foliage of a tropical climate floored me. I researched and delved into the realm of Australian native plants and discovered a love of the extraordinary. Banskia bushes, thousands of Eucalyptus trees, weird pods, bush berries, funky flowers. The formations, biology, and reproduction techniques of these wonders left me in awe.

Pod Necklace, 2008

I believe it was my first year there that I decided when I owned a home some day, I would have a garden...an amazing garden filled with bizarre plants of all sorts. I call it my Dr. Seuss garden. I imagine it with Eucalyptus trees, clymantis, bromeliad, etc. However, it will be some time before I can own that house and build that garden.

So in the mean time...I am creating a garden of my own with jewelry. Pod Necklace is part of this...it reminds me of strange pods you might see hanging off of trees in the spring time, which are so fun to pick and take home for further investigation. The holes remind me of lotus pods, as well.

Every part of this necklace was fabricated by myself--the linked chain is made by hand and slips easily over the head, and the pod hangs down just below the chest. The pod was formed partially on my hydraulic press, and partially with raising techniques. The stem was forged by myself, and all parts have been joined together on botanical-esque happiness.

Pod Necklace is available in my Etsy shop.