A floral ring: wildflowers

Hello friends. I hope you are doing well and the sun is shining where you are. I’m enjoying spending more time outdoors gardening, I’ve spent the last few years learning more about gardening; growing plants and flowers is great for wellbeing and is incredibly rewarding.

Speaking of flowers, I had a lovely wildflower inspired commission earlier this year, inspired by two wildflowers in particular. My client who lives in the North West region of the US wanted a ring for her partner featuring penstemons (commonly known as beard tongues) and Indian paintbrush flowers. I’m familiar with penstemons as I grow them in my garden, I was thrilled to see my client’s beautiful photo of them growing in the wild in such different terrain to the UK. The penstemons and paintbrush flowers grow side by side, they are companion flowers. My client’s partner tells her that they go together like penstemon and paintbrush; the ring was made to symbolise the love between them.

Penstemons and piantbrush flowers growing together in the wild

To start the commission I looked at some reference images of the flowers (as well as the penstemons in my garden) and played around with a layout and composition. I imagined the flowers growing towards each other and meeting in the middle of the ring band. I came up with an idea based on my reference sketches:

Sketches and design ideas

I made a rough “sketch” of the ring in 3D on some soft wax shaped into a band, with the floral details drawn on. This was to help my client visualise how it would look. My client was happy with my idea and so I went ahead and carved the floral details in relief onto the wax. It took some time to get all the details right. Here are some photos of the wax carving:

Penstemon flower detail - wax carving

Paintbrush flower detail

The flowers overlap in the centre of the ring

Once the ring was cast into metal, I tidied it up some more and gave it a brushed finish. Adding oxidisation helped the floral details stand out further:

This was a really enjoyable and creative piece to make, and I hope my love for flowers and plants shines through in the design. I’m looking forward to sharing some more commission work with you again soon!

Thanks for your support,

Erica x