Born from a desire to foster kinship with nature, the Second Nature Project crafts plantable jewelry made from handmade paper—each piece a vessel for seeds, designed to be worn, scattered, and grown, inviting nature to reclaim space through quiet acts of beauty.
JEWELRY DESIGN
This collection features plantable jewelry crafted from handmade paper, each piece embedded with seeds. Designed to be worn, shared, and eventually planted, the jewelry serves as both adornment and ecological gesture. By merging aesthetics with function, the collection invites wearers to participate in a quiet form of environmental engagement—transforming personal ornament into a tool for dispersal and growth.
DISPERSAL HAPPENINGS
I created the concept of Dispersal happenings to bypass the limitations of traditional gallery settings and allow for direct engagement with people. During dispersal events, wearable art pieces embedded with seeds or plants are distributed in places open to the public. In exchange for the artwork, participants are encouraged to wear the piece, eventually plant it, and share their reflections on the experience.
The leaf necklace began during a residency at the Women's Studio Workshop. It was completed and dispersed later in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The necklace is comprised of a grouping of approximately one hundred and fifty individual necklaces made from shaped sheets of abaca pulp, waxed linen and various seeds. When the necklace is planted, the seeds embedded within the paper will sprout and grow into beneficial plants to potentially enrich the participant's home or neighborhood landscape.
Chamomile Corsages Over 200 paper corsages were made for this project. The petal paper is handmade abaca with embedded chamomile seeds and the stem is made from handmade cotton paper. In addition to having the ability to remove and plant the petals, the stem was filled with loose seeds that could be sprinkled from the corsage.
Bulb Brooch The bulb brooch is made from hand felted and sculpted merino wool dyed with onion skins. It held an Egyptian Walking Onion plant who's seeds were passed down in my family through generations, beginning with my late grandfather who began growing the onions in his garden over 40 years ago. The smaller bulblet brooches contained a tiny bulb from the onions and were given away to willing participants. Pictured here is a volunteer wearing the brooch and helping with the dispersal process.
PRACTICUM EXHIBITION The intention of this piece was to showcase the newly hatched Second Nature Project. It was part of the 2012 MFA in Applied Craft and Design Practicum Exhibition and the dispersals took place during the opening and closing receptions. The Sunflower Dispersal Necklace was created specifically for the event. The structure of the necklace is made from strands of silk and wool felt and the seeds are embedded between sheets of handmade abaca paper and attached to the necklace structure with waxed linen. During the dispersal happenings, the seeds were removed from the necklace and tied onto participants’ fingers - a poetic, performative act evoking the custom of tying a string around one’s finger as a reminder….A reminder to plant the seed and a reminder that we are part of, and will always be dependent on the natural world.
BRANCH Branch is a piece by the Second Nature Project that was part of an exhibition at the Bush Barn Art Center in Salem, Oregon. The exhibit was titled: The Nature of Things; Oregon Artists Explore The Tree in Art; it ran from early November through December, 2016. The piece offered an opportunity for visitors to intimately engage with non-human nature by adopting a baby redwood tree. Michael Pollan writes, “A garden is a place where people can learn to use nature without harming it.” Branch brought a tiny garden to the gallery and to the visitors who adopted a tree brooch. Collaboration was an integral part of this piece. Finding common ground in the social practice art movement, Jody Dunphy and Ruth McKinney Burket worked together over a period of two years to develop Branch. Ruth contributed her expertise in casting and ceramics while Jody contributed design thinking and jewelry experience resulting in the production of over one hundred and fifty of the cast porcelain brooches that were given away during the duration of the exhibit. In exchange for the tree brooch, visitors were asked to write or draw their thoughts on trees and connections to them and leave it in place of the brooch. The collaboration was extended to the visitors who were invited to take a tree, wear it, and plant it.
SEED DISPERSAL POSTERS
I crafted posters from scratch using handmade paper and a screen-printed illustration. Each poster held tear-off, seed-infused strips—each one a small invitation to grow a plant. I hung them throughout my neighborhood, and sent others drifting across the country to friends, who placed them in their own communities. Together, we sowed a quiet call to action: plant more seeds, and let beauty take root.
