Jennifer’s McCurdy’s porcelain pottery looks almost as alive as its inspiration. 

McCurdy on her work:

Emotion fills me when I see perfect forms in nature, from the cracked conch shell on the beach revealing its perfect spiral, to the milkweed pod burst in the field, its brilliant airborne seeds streaming into the sunlight. The ordered symmetry and asymmetry of nature’s forms reveal the growth of life, the movement of life.

Living on Martha’s Vineyard, island time, especially in the winter, seems to conform to nature’s cycles. As a potter, I strive to make my work reflect the balance of life around me. It is important that the patterns I see around me are integrated into my forms.

Cracked egg lamp by Ingo Maurer

Glass artist Matthew Curtis finds inspiration in organic forms.  

Curtis on his work:

The forms I am working with are loosely reminiscent of enlarged organic structures whilst also influenced by minimalist architecture. On one hand derivative of the carapace or thorax of a beetle, or of the microscopic structures of diatoms, on the other, an exploration of architectural spaces and forms. With some of the works my intention is that these structures invite the viewer to contemplate distant experiences of discovery, such as a childhood experience, a moment of wonder at the complexity of the natural world. In other works, it is the interplay with forms and the dynamic interrelationships of intersecting planes that informs the design and assemblage of these large glass structures.

Drawings by Aja Johnson available in her microMACRO Etsy store.

Johnson on her work:

I am mostly inspired by repetition in nature, and biology in general. I am fascinated by the visuals in science textbooks; I spend a lot of time at my local library pouring over them searching for inspiration.

Work by Michael Enn Sirvet

Sirvet on his work:

I strive to capture the primitive beauty within familiar forms, to interpret their underlying architecture and construct a bridge between those simple icons and complex ideas. Inspired by chaotic and yet uniform naturally occurring patterns, and the technology and industry which mimic them, I build archetypal structures, melding and juxtaposing independent and varied materials.

Katrina Newman makes beautifully modern jewelry pieces using an ancient technique. 

Newman on her process:

The process of Cuttlefish casting involves taking a cuttlefish bone found on the beach; I cut it in two and carve out a basic design, and sprue, I then rejoin the two halves. I melt sterling silver granules until they are molten and pour them quickly (hopefully without spilling any of the molten metal liquid) into the mould. The mould crackles and cooks. After cooling I open the mould to see if I have made a successful cast, many don’t work. I then spend many hours filing and emerying the piece at my desk, before polishing and finally presenting it for sale.

Lisa Wilson makes sculptures based on algorithms found in natural objects. 

Organic sculptures by Jaehyo Lee

Lee on his work:

I draw a picture on wood using nails…It may be a rusty bent nail. If you take a close look at it, however, you’ll find how beautiful it is.

ProtoHouse is a 3-D printed house by Softkill Design grows like human bone.

Softkill Design on their project:

ProtoHouse investigates the architectural potential of the latest Selective Laser Sintering technologies, testing the boundaries of large scale 3D printing by designing with computer algorithms that micro organize the printed material itself. With the support of Materialise, Softkill Design produced a high resolution prototype of a 3D Printed house at 1:33 scale. The model consists of 30 detailed fibrous pieces which can be assembled into one continuous cantilevering structure, without need for any adhesive material. The arrangement of 0.7mm radius fibres displays a range of flexible textures and the ability to produce in-built architectural elements, such as structure, furniture, stairs, and façade, all in one instance. The Softkill house moves away from heavy, compression based 3d printing of on-site buildings, instead proposing lightweight, high resolution, optimised structures which, at life scale, are manageable truck-sized pieces that can be printed off site and later assembled on site.

Ceramic artist Chris Wight finds inspiration for many of his pieces “in the patterns, textures, shapes and forms found in nature - often and in particular, the ‘tiny worlds’ seen under a microscope or through a macro lens”.

Beautiful acorn and beechnut sculptures by Anna Gillespie 

Lives of Grass by Mathilde Roussel

Roussel on her work:

Lives of Grass sculptures show the effects of transformation of the material as a metaphor of the transformation of the body. Time sculpts the forms, makes them change and then decay. The natural world, ingested as food becomes a component of human being. These sculptures strive to show that food, it’s origin, it’s transport, has an impact on us beyond it’s taste. The power inside it affects every organ of our body. Observing nature and being aware of what and how we eat might make us more sensitive to food cycles in the world - of abundance, of famine - and allows us to be physically, intellectually and spiritually connected to a global reality.

The Little Green Dress Project by Nicole Dextras

About the project:

The concept behind the Little Green Dress has been extrapolated from the age-old fashion adage that every woman should own a little black dress and brings this notion into the realm of today’s environmental awareness. It proposes instead that women should have at least one item of clothing in her wardrobe that is produced in a sustainable and equitable manner. The aim of this project is to promote awareness on the impact of industry on our environment and to offer a realistic opportunity for change by creating a demand for better practices through consumer purchasing. For this reason the dresses will be made entirely from organic materials; Wear it and Compost it!

The Little Green Dress Project replaces the ubiquitous black dress with one that is truly organic: made from leaves and flowers. Its design is based on the classic shift dress, first introduced in the 1960’s by Coco Channel. The twenty-eight participating women will be chosen for their support and involvement in eco-fashion. Each dress will be made to measure by the artist from locally sourced materials representing a wide cross section of women of all ages and sizes from fashionistas, to gardeners. Invited participants will be asked to describe their favorite sustainable article of clothing and their interest in creating sustainable industries.

The project will be presented at the Earth Art exhibition in Vancouver, BC Canada as an outdoor installation of 28 dresses, each draped over a wooden stand. They will be created on site and installed during the run of the exhibition. As with Dextras’ previous Weedrobes series, each sculpture will be photographed and then left to decompose over time.

The NATUROSCOPIE series of lighting by designer Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance brings nature’s best lighting effects indoors. NATUROSCOPIE II simulates one of my favorites: sunlight filtered through moving leaves.

Duchaufour-Lawrance on his work:

This set of lights corresponds with the responsive transcription of the sun when it filters through tree foliage. Within each head, the sequence of the LEDs and their reflection on mirrors and coloured surfaces interpret this natural movement, in a both fugitive and perennial temporality. The light asserts itself in the form of sparkles and bright or mellow green, yellow or silver fragments. In the mural compositions, the foliage pattern unfurls flat, on a single level parallel to the wall, the articulations of the heads making different positions possible. With the ceiling fixtures, the volume of the foliage opens out, the modules connecting at different heights.

Twisted wire sculpture by Ruth Asawa

Asawa on her work:

I started in 1962 when a friend of ours brought a desert plant from Death Valley and said, ‘Here’s something for you to draw.’ I tried to draw it, but it was such a tangle that I had to construct it in wire in order to draw it. And then I got the idea that I could use it as a way to work in wire. I began to see all the possibilities: opening up the center and then making it flat on the wall, and putting it on a stand.