Natural seed necklace and earrings

In the last two months, I have been taking several steps to combat my growing apathy for jewellery design. I find myself in want of inspiration and motivation to create new designs. Since I have not been selling, I do not want to spend money on buying. Therefore, taking a cue from Rozantia of Bairozan, I have been shopping in my stash, repurposing beads and pendants from older pieces/existing designs and redesigning store bought pieces. The pendant necklaces that I showed in this post is an example of shopping in my stash. (PS: Those necklaces are for sale!). The latest in this endevour is a natural seed necklace and earrings set that I redesigned.

Reimagining an existing necklace

Last year, a collegue of mine gifted me a set of natural seed necklace and matching earrings. She had purchased it from a tribal market near Shanthiniketan, West Bengal. Delighed with the gift, I wore it to work. But it could barely keep it on for an hour. The seeds were strung together using a thin metal wire which was hastily looped at the end to a cord (dori) closure. The necklace stood stiff, rising above the body refusing to fall gracefully. It was also short liek a choker and I do not prefer that length. The ends were scratchy and the earrings kept turning in a weird way.

I took it apart thinking that I will restring it using beading wire. Alas, the holes on the beads were not clear through-and-throughs and therefore the seeds could not be restrung. I put them away to think of a better plan.

Natural seed necklace and earrings

Due to my extensive brain fog and lack of interest, the necklace languished as half strung seeds in tin lid (of a box) for several months. I lost a few seeds in the process and a few others started to disintegrate. There was seed powder all over.

One day I accidently dropped the lid and with it the seeds. As I struggled to pick them all up, I decided enough was enough. There were going to the restrung/looped/knotted – one way or the other.

I took out some artisan wire and looped the smaller beads with glass beads to make the necklace part. Using the same wire, I fashioned a horse shoe shaped component and strung the remaining red manjadikuru beads and the larger brown beads together. I looped the leftover seeds to form earrings with seed dangles. In this manner, I completely my new and improved natural seed necklace and earrings. I used a spray varnish on top to slow the seeds from disintegrating into a powder. I kept the layers thin and limited so as to slow the process but not stop it. Afterall, natural decomposition is to be expected with a natural seed necklace.

Identify these seeds

Apart from the jambei (kundumani/manjadikuru) seeds in red colour, I am unable to identify the other two seeds. An image search suggests that the larger seed could be sugar apple or custard apple seeds but I am not convinced. While the collegure who gifted me the set couldn’t identify the seeds, another suggested that the smaller ones could be melon seeds. If you know what they are, please mention it in the comments.

Using natural seeds to make jewellery

Using organic materials such as seeds to make jewellery is an age old practice. If you do not want to drill holes, you can glue them down on a paper or fabric base. But this may work better as a decoration item or to adorn deities and statues and may be a bit stiff to wear on the human body.

In the past, I have made a natural seed necklace, rings and earrings earlier using lotus seeds and manjadikuru seeds (the red seeds uded in this necklace). You can find that post as Handmade Seed jewellery with manjadikuru here. I have also made transient jewellery with other organics such as real flowers here.

I was intially skeptical about taking apart a gift. But I am glad that I did it for I would get to use it now before the seeds totally disintegrate (yes, they continue shed organic material). I wore the set for an entire day at work and it was comfortable to wear.

The colours – blue, red, light and dark brown, oddly go together and have become my go-to palette these days. But if I were to restring/remake the set once again, I would use dark green beads instead of a blue.

Do you make or wear jewellery using organic components?

I hope you find it interesting

Cheers