Talk about grim trends in interior decorating: For the past year or so, it’s been nearly impossible to go out without running into taxidermied birds and animals. Boar’s head that’s not a sandwich meat? Dead bird hanging over the bar? Fancy meeting you again.

Just when you thought it was safe to leave your apartment, the trend has metamorphosed into something new. Why wear jewelry made of something as banal as gold or silver when you could wear bone? Jewelry is taking a Flintstonian turn and is now made of every kind natural material, from shells to fossilized ivory to, yes, bone.


Shell Game
One of the first indicators of the natural jewelry trend were these Mesi Jilly Shell Rings (1)($800 and up, 212-941-9656) that appeared at Kirna Zabete this winter. This self-taught jewelry designer carves beautiful shells into rings, fills them with cement to give them some weight and durability, then decorates them with semi-precious jewels and coral. And established designer Stephen Dweck (2) has just rolled out this necklace made of bone and carved ebony ($1,655).

Victoriana and Raffia
Over at Wendy Mink, Extasia carves birds out of fossilized ivory or wood, like these Jet Bird Earrings (3)($244), made out of wonderfully antique-y black fossilized wood that was known as “Mourning Jewelry” in the mid-1800s. Wendy Mink takes a brighter approach with Raffia Circle Earrings (4)($50) in punchy, collectable colors.

Knock on Wood
Shecky’s designer Lindsay Colbus made her name with jewelry made of beachy natural materials like starfish. This spring she has a “Long Way Around” Necklace (5)($64) with a brown wood pendant covered in jute suspended from a gold plated chain. Mass-market wood bead necklaces are now available everywhere, like this one from Forever 21 (6)($7.80).

The Sixties, Baby
Good news for your chakras: Crystals are back! This Unearthen Apatite & Tangerine Quartz Necklace (7)($450) promises to “put self-revelations into action and stimulate action.” We’re not sure if it works, but it seems worth a shot. Feather earrings are another blast from the past. Opt for a non-peacock kind like these Urban Outfitters Plumage Feather Earrings (8)($18).

A Seedy Past
And of course props should go to the folks who always knew natural was cool: the jewelry designers at the New York Botanical Garden shop. Pick a pair of Still Life Full Moon Maple Leaf Earrings (9)($42) made of Japanese maple leaves or Monica Carvalho’s Carved Seed Cuff (10)($108) made from the seeds of Amazonian palm trees woven on copper wires.

~Marcy Swingle