Collect and Preserve: Rowan Dean, Jewellery

Rowan Dean’s work is themed around butterflies, shown alongside close-up photos of butterfly wings.

Dean stated,

“My work is an investigative approach to the study of natural history. I’ve been looking at Scottish butterflies, fossils, and bones, and the collection and preservation methods used, and turning them into jewellery.”

Around 500 photographs of butterflies were used to create a 3D model, which was then 3D printed using biofilament material, making up her Preserved Grayling brooch.

Her chromatic brooches are inspired by the selected colours from butterfly wings that have been preserved. When asked about the process she stated,

 “I explored the butterfly’s colours under a microscope, a stereoscope and a macro lens to capture the colours as accurately as possible.”

“Prior to this, I made my own little catalogue of enamel samples and tried to best capture the largest variety of colours possible. I then chose from this catalogue the colours that would fit the butterflies the best.”

She states her biggest inspiration is the jeweller, Mariko Sumioka.

“I mostly felt inspired by her work and her use of tiles, because she’s inspired by roof tiles and architecture, or as I’m inspired by the scales of butterfly wings, there’s some kind of crossover visually, and just her visual aesthetics and her work are very clean, very precise, and that’s exactly what I like to make my work about.”

Rowan Dean’s jewellery is detailed, with a focus on preserving and replicating the natural beauty of the butterflies, resulting in gorgeous colour combinations and models that seem to change from every angle.

She has won the Visual Arts Scotland Graduate Award and the ACJ Student Prize 2025.

You can follow her work at @rowandeandesign on Instagram.