This Isn't Your Mother's Cork & Wood Jewelry -- Be Prepared To Pick Your Jaw Off The Floor!

When we reach into our jewelry drawers, most of us sort through baubels made out of various metals, semi-precious stones and on occasion, plastics and other synthetic materials...but aren't we all trying to revamp our lifestyles and walk the thin green line?

Designers have increasingly been answering the call of the green by creating entirely organic lines that look as though they've been plucked straight out of the natural environment around us.

One such artist -- and I use that term intentionally (...you'll see why) -- is UK jewelry designer Anthony Roussel. 

He has really done an amazing job of highlighting the very best that Mother Nature has to offer in his extremely covetable collection of cork and wood bracelets and rings.

Focused on offering decorative pieces that embrace sustainability, ethics and eco-consciousness, Roussel uses only sustainably sourced, naturally dyed woods such as Finland Birch, North American Maple and Portugal Cork that are then enhanced with milk based paints and on occasion, legitimately mined precious metals.

The result is sheer earthy gorgeousness, as in his small birch wood wave rings pictured above...or with his drop-dead gorgeous collection of bangles below. 

From the birch, bird's eye maple and ash wood layered Geo-Colour Bangle (top left) and undulating birch wood Nouveau Bangle (top right) to his birch wood Branch Bangle (bottom left) and Geo Cork Bangle (bottom right), each one is more beautiful than the next.

The few gold and silver bangles that I have to my name seem so hum-drum in comparison -- did you have any idea that cork and wood could summon such knock-your-socks-off power?