ReBorn from the ashes: Eucalyptus Knuckle Ring

Eucalyptus Knuckle Ring holds the paradox: vulnerability and strength, trauma and regrowth. In its form lies the soul of the land — not simply hope, but the certainty of renewal.

I see the Australian land as a profoundly feminine force — life-giving, self-renewing.  It is a scarred place where regeneration is not a metaphor, but a lived, cyclical truth. The Eucalyptus Knuckle Ring was born as a tribute to this Phenyx tree that flourishes after fire, whose seed pods awaken in the heat to give a new life. I’ve set Australian opals inside the gumnuts, like suspended water or sleeping embers — reminders that hope lies dormant until it is called forth.

This work draws from my experience designing pieces for the Amazon series The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, a story deeply rooted in trauma, survival and healing. In that narrative, fire is both a destroyer and a catalyst — just as it is for Eucalyptus. One of the characters (Sigourney Weaver), a silversmith who shelters women escaping violence, creates jewellery as a gesture of protection and meaning. I connected with this instantly, as my own practice lives at that intersection — between body and story, ornament and symbol.

The ring’s form echoes that of a traditional knuckle-duster — an object of defence — but here, it is reimagined as something not manufactured but grown, born by nature to hold on to.

This wearable art work reflects the emotional landscape of a country shaped by fire and resilience — a place where destruction feeds renewal. Just as the land holds memory in its soil, this piece carries quiet strength and the inevitability of rebirth.

I made a trio of knuckle rings in shapes of gum tree branches. One of them is still available on janejujewellery.com