The idea to make elegant cicada wing jewellery began after plating a delicate, silver lost wax cast of a grevillea flower in nickel to make it durable. When I saw some deceased cicadas I thought why not metallise the wings & make them eternal to be appreciated on an everyday basis for their perfect form.

The wings are ethically sourced and collected only from deceased cicadas. This jewellery is even more precious since the insect population around the world is declining at an alarming rate and cicadas are hard to find. In 2021, only one deceased cicada was found.

It has taken years of collecting, electroforming and electroplating since 2018 to create limited stock of cicada wing metal plated jewellery. Apart from the hours searching for deceased cicadas in Sydney and elsewhere; a lot of time is spent preparing the wings for metal plating and matching wings for size, shape, metal colour and lustre. Sometimes the wings need to be cleaned and dried first.

Most wings have slightly curved edges which characterise the aerodynamics of cicada wings. There are quite a variety of shapes within the seemingly uniform wings which differ in size according to species and also time of the season. Who knows when cicadas will next appear to make their noisy din during summer?