Wire Jewelry Idea April 11: Spring, Nature, & Organic Inspiration

by Rose Marion, Wire-Sculpture.com

I can’t help but be disctracted by the beautiful weather outside lately! Here in northern Utah, it’s a balmy 72 degrees with light gusts of wind. The trees have buds on them, which glowed green under a blanket of snow last week – but the snow’s gone now, and the earth’s dried out. Just a beautiful spring day with nature screaming to be looked at!

Why not turn to nature today for jewelry inspiration? The flowers are starting to come out – white, purple, and gold crocuses, even some roses are in bloom. Of course, flowers are a natural inspiration for wire artists, since many of us have our own gardens or just love to match the beauty of flowers.

Albina Manning created these pretty Spring Flower Earrings:

And Jill Gentry made a daisy pendant with a little craft wire, these would be beautiful pendants for you to give as gifts:

You can also wire wrap a stone that’s reminiscent of flowers. Flower cameos are inexpensive but beautiful. For those with expensive taste, here’s a John Dyer stone I saw in Tucson – the back is cut to show the petals in this irradiated Lime Citrine – my photography doesn’t do it justice, click the image below to see a much better-quality photo!

Leaves are also inspirational: these 2 leaf pieces are part of our Free Email Jewelry Patterns series. By Albina Manning:

by Dale “Cougar” Armstrong:

And we couldn’t ignore garden visitors! Here’s two artists’ take on a visiting butterfly:

And of course, every successful garden has to have a bee. Dale teaches her original wire pin in the Intermediate Series.

That reminds me of another animal I’ve seen in wire. In Tucson, I met a man who had discovered a horse’s head carved from turquoise. The horse was turned to the side, and had its teeth slightly parted, and had a nice long neck. This man devised a bit and harness for the horse using twisted gold wire, and created a bail for the horse pendant. What a cool idea, for a cabochon that would be hard to wrap in a standard frame!

A fun animal to wrap – yes, it’s a real animal there! – is the orthoceras cabochons you willl find in Tucson. These sea creatures are stunning.

Just as stunning are ammonites and ammolites:

I hope this trip through organic nature will help you find jewelry-making inspiration this spring! I’d love to hear what your favorite nature inspirations are this time of year. Happy jewelry making!

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4 Comments

1. 

   Juanita Young

   April 11, 2012 at 5:58 am

   Just love Dale work. I want to make wire jewelry like that. She does such wonderful work.
2. 

   Jane Elizabeth

   April 11, 2012 at 1:54 pm

   Love love the butterfly ear rings! Such precision work and life like as well! I am inspired!
3. 

   JoJo's Nonni

   April 26, 2012 at 3:18 pm

   Albina Manning’s leaves r stunning!! I love the intricate design & color. I’m thinking of all kinds of different possibilities: blending shades of green or using foliage-like colors 2 make interesting fall pieces. I think these leaves’d be great 4 mixing & matching (necklace, earrings, bracelet, anklet, ring etc).
4. 

   Mel

   September 18, 2014 at 4:26 pm

   WOW just what I was looking for. Came here by searching for coupons