Turning insects, leaves - and even a snake - into unique jewellery items

Holding a bedazzled copper cicada, its wings translucent and protected through resin, Virginia said it wasn't cast to look like the winged insect, but was an actual bug covered in metal through electroplating.

"You would think that it would fall apart in your hands because the original skeleton is very delicate, but the thing I really like about it is that you can take something really fragile and make it strong and wearable," she said.

During the Covid pandemic, Virginia had been looking for a creative outlet to undertake and came across the process of electroforming, where metal grows on an object through electrochemical transfer.

"I just stumbled upon it going down the rabbit hole of googling jewellery-making techniques, and just wanted to give it a go and the rest is history. I wasn't a science person before this, but I really enjoy it," Virginia said.

Within the Towamba-based artist's off-the-grid caravan, the Electro Fawn business owner brushes foraged specimens, usually Ginkgo leaves, with a graphite paint making the item conductive to electricity.

Carefully and intricately detailing the parts she wanted copper on with a thin paintbrush dipped in a graphite paste, Virginia then submerged the specimen in a blue solution, resulting in a mystical and environmentally conscious fashion piece.

"I put them into this acidic, conductive solution with copper atoms in it, that looks like bright blue Gatorade. I hook it up to electricity and it plates for a couple of days, and then you have these pieces," she said.

Some specimens are then left in the solution for a number of days. This was dependent on the item used, detail, weight of the final product, and the aesthetic wanting to be achieved.

Proudly wearing one of her 'Gingko leaf' pieces around her neck, she said the leaves were from a tree that had remained unchanged for about 200 million years, making it a living fossil and her favourite.

Her favourite piece was made from a snake skeleton she purchased from a taxidermist, while all organic material had been foraged by Virginia, gifted, or ethically sourced.

The uniqueness of the serpent has caught the attention of market-goers across the Far South Coast, but she said it had become part of her brand's identity, and would be difficult to part with.

However, not all her jewellery collection were animals. A number of handmade treasures were created using gemstones, while a teaspoon made from a bent twig and a scallop shell.

"I've been using it to stir my sugar into my coffee and I've been trying to find a way of possibly making them into oyster spoons for the tourists that come off the ships and want to eat oysters from the area," she said.

Following the Japanese philosphical concept of wabi-sabi where imperfection adds value and pleasure, Virginia said she enjoyed keeping nibbles in leaves and defects as it added to the natural beauty.

"These are all things that get trodden underfoot, so you can pick up something like a decaying leaf and show someone how absolutely beautiful it is," she said with a smile.

"The imperfection is something that I love the most."