I've been exploring this theme in my jewellery for quite a while now: 'Eucalyptus' for me is a metaphor for a woman, repairing, regrowing, regenerating herself after some catastrophic crisis in her life. Like this phenyx-tree after a severe fire, burnt to the core, she finds her strength deep in the earth, in her roots - to feel alive and to bloom again. So when I was invited to make some jewellery pieces for the Lost flowers of Alice Heart my connection with this story was immediate. It is a story of a girl who lost her parents in a terrible fire. Another main character of this story (starring Sigourney Weaver) is a silversmith, running a refuge for women, who survived all sorts of crises and abuse. She makes meaningfull jewellery inspired by Australian native flowers. The filming team acquired a number of my 'Eucalyptus' pieces for the series: the Gumtree Bark cuff and the Twig Pendant for Twig starred by Leah Purcell, the Two Seasons Brooch to adorn Sigourney Weaver's hat, gum nut charms for 'flowers', etc. (And some other pieces I made to order by the script - about 50 jewellery pieces in total).
It was an undreamt-of and massive work and immense inspiration.
So I started the second iteration of my Eucalyptus line, combining cast in silver organic pieces with hand-carved wax casting, using kangaroo leather, Australian opals, patinas, cold enamel, and mixed media.
To see more of my Eucalyptus collection https://www.janejujewellery.com/down-to-earth
