Big Things Come in Small Packages

The sixteen works in Sultana Shamshi's Pendant/Container series are fabricated partially from locally found gumnuts and gumnuts cast in silver. Her series reflects on the perfection of packaging and storage that trees have evolved over millennia.

Packaging in contemporary life has become a troublesome and toxic problem, causing pollution, decimation of forests and other environmental damage. Working on this series, Shamshi marvelled at the irony of finding the perfect packaging in the very lifeform that we are destroying to make paper and cardboard for the ephemeral packing of our goods.

Each beautiful little seed pod contains seeds to populate a forest, protected from climate and predators by its wonderfully constructed internal chamber. When the pod has released its seeds, it disintegrates and composts, feeding the mother tree and enriching the soil. Functionally the pod is impeccable: nothing is wasted.

Shamshi mostly used native pods, with a couple exceptions to solve design and size issues. It was challenging to find perfect fits for stoppers, but when that happened it was gratifying. Combining pods cast in silver with the actual pods gives the pieces structural integrity as jewellery and as containers.