Sarah Madeleine Bru jewellery is inspired by flowers

woman wearing gold jewellery — (Image credit: Sarah Madeleine Bru)

A fragrant fluidity runs throughout French jewellery designer Sarah Madeleine Bru’s second collection, which deconstructs the anatomy of flowers for jewellery that traces the contours of the body.

Sarah Madeleine Bru’s ‘Fragment Floral’ collection

To create the free-flowing forms, Bru played with fresh flowers, observing how they fall, before 3D-scanning them and rethinking them in silver, vermeil or 18ct gold. ‘I experimented with many species but focused especially on anthuriums, sweet peas and arums,’ says Bru of her creation process. ‘For as long as I can remember, I have always played at turning flowers into ephemeral jewellery. A flower in your hair, a necklace of daisies, a petal on your hand, it was always more of a game but recently I used it as a very serious source of inspiration. Floral is such an iconic jewellery theme that is often treated in a literal way. As I am a lover of abstract forms, I needed to find my personal angle.’

Bru was keen to imprint her own aesthetic onto the traditional floral inspiration. 3D-scanning allowed her to experiment with the scale and shape of the flowers, although she was led by their natural forms when deciding the design of the jewellery. ‘I used anthurium flowers; they have two main parts, the spadix, the pistil-like central element, and the spathe, which is a bit like a large petal,’ she says. ‘I separated them and used them on their own; I bent the spadix and it easily became a ring. I also used the spathe to create earrings. I used only half of it; I cut directly into it with a scalpel to find the exact shape that is now the “Anthurium” earring. The final shape follows the ear lobe in a natural movement.’

The arum flower is more abstract, with the twist of its bud becoming a chain link. Adds Bru: ‘The sweet pea ring and earring are the back part of the flower called the standard. I simply folded it around the ear and the fingers. When they are starting to fade, the sweet pea petals start to wave very nicely and it is this movement that I tried to capture around the body.’

For Bru, the challenge of imbuing a natural anatomic design with a wearable functionality was an enjoyable one. ‘The idea of extracting a fragment of nature and translating it into a wearable piece of jewellery really excited me. I loved the idea of capturing the essence of a natural element and freezing it into metal forever.’

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Hannah Silver is a writer and editor with over 20 years of experience in journalism, spanning national newspapers and independent magazines. Currently Art, Culture, Watches & Jewellery Editor of Wallpaper*, she has overseen offbeat art trends and conducted in-depth profiles for print and digital, as well as writing and commissioning extensively across the worlds of culture and luxury since joining in 2019.