Meet the Masters: Ashley Green, Artisan Accessorist

The author pictured wearing a pinecone pendant by the artist.

Friends of the Forest, today I would like to introduce you to an artist who creates one-of-a-kind accessories with items found on the forest floor. As you can see, I am wearing one of my favorite pieces from Natural Shed Jewelry, a pinecone heart pendant. Now everyone, give a warm welcome to the craftsman.

Ariel Greenwood: Hello Mr. Green, thank you for joining us on The Forest for a pinecone and a pint! I am so excited to showcase your craft and talk to you today. Now, what exactly is it you do? 

Ashley Green: I'm Ashley Green Jeweler / GURU of Natural Shed Jewelry. I make jewelry out of natural items that I find or purchase. Some of these creations are pinecone heart necklaces, natural shed deer antler burr necklaces, antler rings, bent wood rings, denim rings, and more. As I find more material that inspires me the list will grow...

Ariel: What kind of tools you do you use, what is the process behind making your jewelry?

Ashley: The tools I use to build my creations are mainly jewelers hand tools, but there are a few machines as well. I rebuilt a 1943 Craftsman Bandsaw for the cutting of antler, bone & pinecone that I use in my craft. I purchased a lathe a few years back, that I have collected all the parts needed to use for rings and other future projects. I also use drills, dremel, torches, and UV light. All these tools are used in the forging of my materials to craft my end result, beautiful natural jewelry.

 The process for my pinecone adornments is as follows:

I slice the pinecone on the bandsaw I mentioned. Then select if they will be sealed natural or with one of the many stones, crystals, gems, cabochons (shaped stones), or other nature items found that I was inspired to use. Now, the sealing process. I use a high-grade UV resin to seal the pinecone and its adornment by applying to resin in even coats over the entire medallion. The process takes a steady hand and several hours to complete. When the adornments are completely sealed and dry, they are then drilled and outfitted with necklace bails that are sealed with resin to the chosen top. Cord, leather straps, or hemp jute are then selected and threaded through the bail and finished with stainless steel crimp cord ends, jump rings and either lobster claw clasps or toggle clasps. After this production they are then boxed or trayed to be sold to their intended owners.

Ariel: What inspires you to create?

Ashley: I find my inspiration in nature and through the media I work with. Holding a natural object. A pinecone, I don't think much of. That is, until I cut into it and the inside is revealed. Each heart of each pinecone I use look as if they are perfectly painted mandalas. The golds, fawn and mahogany colors that were used look as if painted by the creator himself. Inspiration to see in every medallion. 

The antler burrs I purchased intending to do scrimshaw or carving. I have done stone or gem inlays that turned out to be a great match to complement one another. Looking at them one day I saw flowers. Sunflowers, cone-heads, daisies. I asked my wife to paint some of them to resemble these flowers. I see myself incorporating both mediums, antler and pinecone into one adornment. However, that inspiration has not come to pass...

Ariel: Does music inspire you? Do you listen to music while you work?

Ashley: Music on or off I've no preference. I find building my adornments a meditative feat. Staring at these natural items, the nature choir that ensues in my head is music enough. It is a reward when each handmade medallion is set to the next phase of completion. Thought + Vision are music enough oftentimes.

Ariel: Do any animals or spirit animals inspire your work?

Ashley: I live on a farm in northern Harford County, Maryland and there are many animals on the farm as you know. And they do inspire me. I don't think that the yard pigs, dogs, cats or horses lend to my inspiration. But they do help. It is felt when they are helping/sleeping at my feet in the workshop. When the lab is snoring across the shop. Or when Russel is at my feet begging to see what the last step turned out like. He likes the pictures. Through that I feel love.

Ariel: What does a pinecone symbolize to you?

Ashley: When my wife and I went on our first trip to Assateague Island on the Atlantic Coast of Maryland we were camping and I suggested we collect a pinecone as a keepsake. The first one was labeled with the campground receipt tied to the cone with a ribbon. Anecdotes and things that happened were recorded on the receipt. My wife started a basket in her office with these keepsakes in it. Ever since that first one, we have collected pinecones from many corners of this great land and the basket has grown in size. So pinecones mean love, bliss, travel, moving forward and remembrance to me. 

My wife is a skilled painter of mandalas. The lines, dots, curves repeat into a meditative eternity. Seeing this repeated the first time I saw the inside of a pinecone heart. There it lives, nature's mandala. Perfect in every way, simple yet complex and never-ending. Eternal, an internal spiral. I can feel this. Pinecones symbolize to me, the continuance of...

They can be ALL.

Ariel: And where do you find your pinecones?

Ashley: We know pinecones can be found on most pine trees in the forest. The pinecones I use for my jewelry are knob pinecones. The knob pinecones grow in the mountainous regions of Northern California and Oregon. The pinecones don't grow on the outer limbs of the tree singly like most pine do. The knob pinecones grow in clusters of three to six, sometimes double that, on the interior branches or trunk of the conifer. When found they appear to be hugging the tree, they grow so close. And unlike most conifers, the knob pinecone doesn't shed its cones yearly. Instead, they remain on the tree for something like thirty years in extreme cases. The knob pines have been called "the tree that swallows its cones". Oddly, the heat from forest fires causes the knob pinecones to melt the resin/sap and allow it to open their cones which makes them drop their seeds to the scorched forest floor. To be replanted by nature as they are there to reforest the land when this happens.

A pinecone pendant with a malachite clover.

Ariel: What is the smallest pinecone you have ever found? And the largest?

Ashley: The smallest pinecone that comes to mind when asked this question is the pinecone of the golden larch pine tree. One of only twenty deciduous pine trees. Eleven of them being in the larch family. Deciduous meaning it drops all its needles in the winter and regrows them in the springtime. Now their pinecones are the size of a dime, tall and round. They are primarily grown on the East Coast. It's called the Golden Larch because when it cuts off its growing season, it looks like a big golden flame standing there in the woods.

The largest pinecone that comes to mind would be the cone of the sugar pine. Their cones can grow up to two feet long and six inches in circumference. Now that's a big cone.

Ariel: I used to craft with pinecones a lot. I used the tiny ones to make rings. Tell you what, I'm going to give you a few pinecones from my collection. Do you think you could make a pendant out of a pinecone this small?

Ashley: I do like the small pinecones. Yes, I believe that I will let the Larch pinecones make an appearance in my craft. I do like their look and I have always had a fondness for these cones. As for a pendant, they may be too small to hang alone. I can see them as an added dangle charm.

Ariel: Or you could make earrings from them! Do you like to do any other pinecones crafts?

Ashley: I have seen other crafters make many other items out of pinecones. Drawer pulls, knife handles, and other types of old-fashioned jewelry. I have seen pinecones suspended in resin then turned on a big lathe into fruit bowls, vases and other vessels. There is no end to their potential use. But as for now I have not ventured past crafting my adornments.

Ariel: Pinecones also make good fire-starters if you are camping or have a fireplace at home...

Ashley: I agree, I have used pinecones as a firestarter. The older the better. The resin in them when heated is like lacquer thinner when it comes to fire.

Ariel: Do you think you could make jewelry out of petrified wood?

Ashley: I do believe you can make jewelry out of petrified wood. You can wire wrap raw pieces, such as a raw agate that can be cut and shaped. I have some polished, shaped pieces of petrified wood in my rock collection for when the right pinecone medallion calls for it.  All the agate stones are beautiful added adornments to any natural material.

Ariel: What is your favorite gemstone?

Ashley: Hard question. I just switched from tiger's eye and labradorite to turquoise. But, those are not gems per se. I like the option to use all the stones and gems I can in my work without favorites. I love all types of natural materials.

Ariel: How does the intersection of tree and stone inspire you?

Ashley: When I finish one of my adornments. Knowing that how I feel then will be amplified tenfold by the person whom it was made for who finally picks it up and says, "This was made for me!" That look, that is what inspires me. The stone selects the medallion, I just move to make it. It inspires me that some of my adornments that I thought weren't that great, those are the ones that I have seen the greatest reaction from. The last wellness open house I set up at, I was watching two customers talking and admiring each other's medallions back and forth. That was inspiration. To see the JOY that I made by being the go-between. That inspires me to do more.

Ariel: Which art trends inspire your current work?

Ashley: I definitely find inspiration in nature, the elements, and the force I use to bring it all together. It can be seen in all the Natural Shed Craft pieces. The art of nature pure.

Ariel: How has your style changed over time? How long have you been creating?

Ashley: I have been working with the natural material of pinecone, bone and antler in this fashion for about three years now. Building my shop to make it what it is today. Gaining new tools and learning how to construct with them. There has been a lot of trial and error, learning curves to making the best pieces of art to my ability. I feel like its not really a hobby when I feel the life it gives me, when I handcraft every single one. So, my style has not changed as much as it has grown. Like a tree.

Ariel: Are there any other master jewelers whose work inspires you?

Ashley: I just got back from a trip out west. Arizona, to be precise. I collected many different types of materials and came back with many ideas of how to incorporate them into my craft.  Etched in my mind are the truly stunning pieces of Native American jewelry I have touched and admired on my trip. They were and are the masters in my opinion. Mimicked and replicated, does true genius happen by mistake at first.  Hopefully Natural Shed Jewelry's feeling can live on and inspire others in its mastery!

Ariel: Well, you've certainly inspired me. And the many readers of this blog, I'm sure. Say, next time you're in Arizona you should visit Quartzsite. It is a small town near the border of Arizona and California. They host a huge gem and mineral show there every year.

Ashley: Right.

Ariel: Well, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us here at The Forest. I will be bringing you a bag of pinecones soon...

If you would like to order a pinecone pendant, email arieltheauthor@gmail.com