Artist Spotlight: Lucy Jade Sylvester
Double sycamore seed pendant, £85
18ct gold budded twig and diamond ring, £2200
Slim oak leaf ring, silver, £75
Lucy's love of the British countryside started as a child, her pockets often filled with seed heads and feathers. Her love of the natural world and collecting has continued, her woodland finds are now displayed in her Oxfordshire studio, hanging from the walls and stored in old science jars.
Lucy believes you cannot compete with the beauty of nature, its perfect lines and textures, so uses it as directly as possible. Taking moulds from her delicate finds, she casts into the cavity they leave, allowing her to create exact replicas of life in solid silver and gold that retain the finest details.
"These natural forms with beautiful textures would decay into the ground and be gone forever, with direct casting from them I've created something that will now be here forever, to be worn for a life time."
Lucy's newest work concentrates on engagement rings and wedding bands, simple lines from cow parsley stems, rye grass, lichen, leaves, twigs and seed heads wrap around to create rings, the fragile veins and stems clearly visible as the designs overlap to create a collection of fine botanical wedding jewellery, all cast from British countryside plants with a scattering of diamonds.
The Great British stag beetle, bees and hawk moths have all been given a new life in solid silver and gold by the nature loving jeweller, her Hawk moth ring was chosen by costume designer Michele Clapton to be worn by Sansa Stark in the hit medieval TV series Game of Thrones.
Since completing her MA at The School of Jewellery in Birmingham, Lucy has exhibited her work around the world, been published in many books and magazines, and most recently exhibited at London's prestigious Chelsea Flower Show.
"My work is evolving all the time, as the seasons change, the inspiration is new once more."