MINInATURE.

Twig Terrariums

Terrariums are THE hot trend in the inte­ri­ors com­mu­nity these days. As the reju­ve­nat­ing spir­its of Spring near, now is the per­fect time to delve into this redis­cov­ered phe­nom­e­non. The clamor for these cre­ations is in part due to their broad appeal — a hybrid of fine art, biol­ogy, design and hor­ti­cul­ture. This crossover essence is why — as you may very well guess — HighStreet peo­ple do dig them. These labyrinthine con­coc­tions sat­isfy pre­vail­ing trends of loca­vore, Victoriana, and found-object. “In a lab­o­ra­tory of liv­ing design, we con­jure art and sci­ence to cre­ate unusual liv­ing objects of wilder­ness — inspired by far-away land­scapes both dis­cov­ered and imagined.”

HighStreet cur­rently car­ries a col­lec­tion of fab­u­lous ter­rar­i­ums by local artist Amy Bogard. We would be remiss; how­ever, to not men­tion that these wee lit­tle worlds rep­re­sent a real­is­ti­cally attain­able DIY project. Do not be intim­i­dated, after all these objects are sim­ply re-purposed old apothe­cary jars, dusty light bulbs, moss, twigs and fig­urines, right? Best of all is the fact that even the most concrete-encased urban­ite can col­lect the major­ity of required mate­ri­als dur­ing a quick stroll around the block — no con­sumerism needed. From the hum­blest of begin­nings, whether refined or whim­si­cal, most any­one can cre­ate a visu­ally stun­ning, inde­pen­dent and self-sufficient microclimate.

As pre­vi­ously men­tioned, ter­rar­i­ums are not a new­fan­gled craze. The pros­per­ity of Victorian era Britain resulted in many women and men with much spare time on their hands. One of the egal­i­tar­ian hob­bies of the time was col­lect­ing plants — par­tic­u­larly ferns. Like many greenery-obsessed Victorians, Nathaniel Ward was a London doc­tor by pro­fes­sion who had an intense enthu­si­asm for botany.

Installation by Paula Hayes

Dr. Ward’s plants, par­tic­u­larly his ferns, were hav­ing dif­fi­culty sur­viv­ing the pol­luted air of 1820s London. It was intensely frus­trat­ing for a pas­sion­ate col­lec­tor to not be able to keep the plant of the moment alive. While puz­zling over the prob­lem with his ferns, Dr. Ward noticed that the plants placed in his cov­ered insect jars (for study­ing moths and cater­pil­lars) were actu­ally tak­ing root in the soil. It was a moment of clar­ity — Dr. Ward real­ized that his minia­ture green­house could actu­ally pro­tect the plants enough so that they would thrive. Soon after his dis­play at the Great Exhibition in 1851 London, where he flaunted a vibrant fern that had not been watered in 18 years, a Wardian Case (the pre­cur­sor to the mod­ern ter­rar­ium) was promptly nes­tled in every deco­rous home.

Terrariums enjoyed a revival in the 1970s in America — pic­ture kitschy and kooky giant brandy snifters dan­gling in macrame hang­ers. The cre­ations of today, in con­trast, pos­sess a cool and sleek sophis­ti­ca­tion. Nathaniel Ward could not have dreamed of the fan­tasy worlds birthed by Paula Hayes, the “high priest­ess” of ter­rar­i­ums.  Having ele­vated them to objects of art with her ethe­real cre­ations, she is gen­er­at­ing some seri­ous buzz in today’s design indus­try. Hayes, orig­i­nally from Concord, MA, is an artist who has show­cased her works in numer­ous solo and group exhi­bi­tions world­wide. Her pieces have been seen in The New York Times, Artnet, Elle Decor, Interior Design, Garden Design, Vogue Living Australia, and more. What we love about her work is the mod­ern approach of blur­ring the bound­aries between indoors and out­doors while cre­at­ing mag­i­cal atmos­pheres. She refers to her pri­mor­dial lit­tle worlds as verbs rather than nouns.

Although most famous for her exquis­ite, high-end art ter­rar­i­ums of organ­i­cally shaped, hand­blown glass — her affin­ity for all things green extends to full gar­dens as well. She has cre­ated over twenty full gar­dens for pri­vate clients around the coun­try. Hayes’s pop­u­lar­ity among art col­lec­tors and the pub­lic has swelled dra­mat­i­cally over the past few years. Her instal­la­tion in the lobby of MoMA, Nocturne of the Limax Maximus, gar­nered much crit­i­cal acclaim and landed her a fea­ture on CBS Sunday Morning.

What really sets the mod­ern ter­rar­ium apart from its’ pre­de­ces­sor is the func­tion­al­ity that artists are bring­ing to the work. A prime exam­ple of this con­cept can be seen in the Furnibloom line, clear plex­i­glass fur­ni­ture, designed by land­scape archi­tect Dagný Bjarnadóttir, that clev­erly houses plants of all sorts.

Furnibloom

Terrariums make won­der­fully thought­ful gifts and are smart wed­dig centerpieces.

These ter­rar­i­ums are surf­ing the wave of  inter­est in hand­made crafts and do-it-yourself fever. Workshops are pop­ping up in cities across the globe. Some of the bet­ter resources avail­able online that pro­vide instruc­tions and inspi­ra­tion are The Slug and The Squirrel, Twig, and Botany Factory. We at HighStreet believe that these mul­ti­far­i­ous lit­tle art objects are stun­ningly seduc­tive. It also seems that the cre­ative process won­drously soothes our need to nur­ture while offer­ing fan­tasy and escape.

That is no small feat.