“Wearing an embedded fragment of lichen would be a fine way to demonstrate your love for this wonderful composite organism- THAT is beyond question. A way that is perhaps finer STILL- by merit of involving a hand-made artistic INTERPRETATION of a piece of lichen- would be to wear one of Wild Hedge Nest’s EXQUISITE works of naturalistic embroidery.

Starting with a base cuff of hyper-realistic soft silver birch or hazelnut-brown twisted yarn, Wild Hedge Nest uses threads of stone, sage, sable, olive and grass to recreate PERFECTLY patchworked mini colonies of crustose and foliose lichens, often intertwined with convincingly cushiony emerald-hued tufts of faux wood bristle moss.

Tiny details- from the subtle black split ‘knots’ in the birch’s luminously chalky skin to the evenly-toothed bumpy knap of the common plait-moss- have been faithfully reproduced here; and not JUST in bracelet form…

Other wearable treats from Hedge Nest include a cushiony reproduction of a moss-covered naturally-bored ‘hag stone’ or ‘witch stone’ necklace, embroidered felt flyagaric mushroom and acorn charms and- The Museum’s favourite- a grey felt stone brooch bursting with Wotsit-coloured Clavaria fungus, steel-coloured palmate lichen forms and LOTS of lovely, fuzzy green cushion moss.

In summary, Alternative Jewellery Pals, you need to go HERE for embedded lichen awesomeness.

- MUSEUM OF ALTERNATIVE JEWELLERY