Madison Style: Saving wildflowers through jewelry - Madison.com
Lori Marshall Ford is exploring new fields in business — new fields of flowers. Texas wildflowers were a mainstay in creating her Wildflowyr Jewelry line, and now she is exploring using Wisconsin wildflowers. Last February, she and her three younger children moved from Texas back to her home state of Wisconsin.
Twelve years ago, Ford started her online jewelry business when she left the Air Force after an 8-year enlistment.
Originally named Belukro for her husband and two older sons, Ford changed the name to Wildflowyr after her daughter and another son were born.
Ford started out creating basic beaded items, weaving, and learning silversmithing to fabricate rings and necklace settings. YouTube was her silversmithing instructor. She took a regular — in real life — glass bead making class and began making her own as well. But, with the birth of her daughter in 2009, she no longer had the time for making glass beads. That is when her interest turned to fabricating with resin.
Living in Texas, bluebonnets and other little flowers were easy for her to find. After experimenting with methods to find the best way to preserve the flowers’ color, she began adding them to resin and producing one-of-a-kind rings and necklaces. Ford is pleased with the results.
“I feel like they (the flowers) were wasting their lives if I didn’t preserve them!” she said.
When she was creating and selling jewelry through Belukro, Ford was a part of a marketing organization whose focus was connecting artisan businesses with Hollywood’s celebrities, industry leaders, VIPs, and the press. Through juried selection, Ford’s jewelry was included in celebrity gift lounges, swag bags, and TV show stylist gifting initiatives.
From there, it found its way to being worn by celebrities including “Devious Maids” star Paula Garces who wore Ford’s lotus flower pendant necklace during 2014’s New York Fashion Week.
Ford’s jewelry has also made television appearances. One of the programs it has been seen on is “The Vampire Diaries.” Her full moon necklace was worn by Kat Graham as Bonnie Bennett and by Emily C. Chang as Ivy.
