Tree Necklaces
Written by Jane Atfield
For a few years I’ve been spending many Saturdays in all weathers with a small group of tree enthusiasts, and our inspiring mentor Bettina. We wander tree to tree along London streets and parks as arboreal detectives, learning through intense observation, comparison and questioning. Through being encouraged to develop knowledge using direct sensory experience (looking, feeling and smelling) we have grown a curiosity and infectious joy in all that trees have to offer.
This pandemic year the tree watching and identifying became a mental life line. Pacing around central London now often alone, the deserted streets were redefined by its trees and the passing of time registered through their seasonal changes. These local characters had become my new steadfast companions!
To celebrate them and with a desire to make things (however small) in lockdown I started to play with regrouping tree characteristics across different genus to reflect emotional states such as fear, love and loss and also family connections. This became a series of 30 engraved necklaces starting with Weeping Trees and Memento Mori (Ash Dieback) and including Hybrid Trees (with my favourite the Bastard Service Tree) Pioneer Trees and Early European Settlers, Silver and Golden Trees, Fruit and Nut Trees, Biblical Trees, Trees with Thorns and Trees with Heart-shaped Leaves.
Later came tree necklaces reflecting my local shopping streets such as Lamb’s Conduit and Marchmont Streets in Bloomsbury, and also some favourite parks such as Lloyd Park in Walthamstow. The necklaces are made with engraved offcuts of traffolye from an industrial sign writer and reference directly botanical garden tree ID labels.
Last week I finished a Columbia Road tree necklace to give to my friend and fellow tree explorer Ingrid from Bethnal Green. It includes the now absent Fig Tree she mentioned that was cut down for new housing at the Shoreditch end of the road. Luckily she had taken cuttings from it for her nearby school vegetable garden.
I have never seen Ingrid wear a necklace but maybe this will be the first and she will enjoy carrying her local trees close to her heart.
With thanks to Bettina, Graham, Ingrid, Nick, Daniel, Maureen and John for sharing the tree love.
Jane is a furniture designer and a part time tutor on the Middlesex University Art Foundation Course.