Handpainted Wooden Meadow Grass Design Square Earrings

I think this is my favourite collaboration with a maker yet. I met Bianca through Instagram and she had a stall at my first studio craft market in June. I have been looking to add some wooden jewellery to my collection and I love her work so asked if she would work with me to create an exclusive collection inspired by the shapes and colours of the meadow grasses I’ve been collecting and drying. This is the first time she has worked on a commissioned design and she was really excited by the idea. I knew as soon as she photographed the grasses to take home for inspiration that she was going to create a beautiful collection and I love this range so much!

These wooden earrings are made using vintage recycled wood, individually hand painted in a design inspired by the colours and forms of a bunch of late summer grasses. Bianca loves working with colour palettes that complement the natural tones of the wood, in this case a beautiful chocolatey English Walnut veneer mounted on mahogany, reclaimed from the door panels of a broken 1930’s wardrobe. The soft autumnal tones of the grasses is translated into a design reminiscent of the forms of these beautiful plants, simplified into lines and dots of different lengths. Bianca works with colours she mixes herself, and develops designs by painting straight onto the wood. She finds that the best way to determine if the colours, forms and textures will work on the wood she has chosen. The shapes of the wood are simple squares and rectangles rounded off on alternate corners. These shape are led by a desire to make the best use of the precious woods in her collection, but to also create pleasing and tactile shapes. The wood is polished using a hemp oil and beeswax polish, made from UK grown hemp and wax collected from high welfare bees.

These earrings are individually hand cut shaped polished and painted. These earrings measure 20mm long and 15mm wide, and hang from 20mm diameter 925 sterling silver ear wires.