Nature has long been an inspiration for artists. Every trimester the students from the Jewelry One classes enjoy a field trip to Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park to view sculptures, drawings and botanicals that celebrate the beauty of forms in nature. We study the natural forms and shapes of plants in the galleries and conservatory, finding in those forms basis for the creation of a jewelry project to be cast in metal. This trip affords an opportunity to see how professional jewelry designers use the natural world as inspiration to create objects of human adornment. By viewing both the forms themselves and work of artists who have been influenced by them we learn from their example.

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