Michael Tatom’s Metal Animals That Wrap Around Your Finger

Michael Tatom started out as a jeweller in a retail store, carving stone on the side in his brother’s studio, and became fascinated by animal forms — specifically the detail required to get each creature’s muscle definition right. He moved on to casting in bronze and, at his wife’s suggestion, opened an online shop called beasts and beauty.

The work has since shifted to wrapped metal versions designed to loop around a finger: small sculptures with a jeweller’s finish, where the animal’s anatomy has to hold up at the scale of a knuckle. The most interesting contemporary jewellery is usually miniature sculpture that happens to be wearable.

More: beasts and beauty.