Under Glass: Creating a Specimen Cloche

As summer leads us to outdoor adventures and memorable vacations, we've been searching for fresh ways to display mementos of our travels-- or objects from our own backyards. For found flora, we love the look of pressed botanicals, while our favorite homes for three-dimensional specimens are polished cloches like the ones above. Equally suited for live plants and inorganic objects, these displays are a simple way to spotlight found treasures. We rounded up a few tips for crafting your own cloche in style.

Change with the Weather
Make your cloche a part of seasonal décor by changing the contents throughout the year. Add shells and coral from a beach vacation in summer, petite pumpkins and gourds in fall, or evergreen and holly branches during the holidays. Or, display a few pieces of your favorite jewelry each season.

Get Innovative with Bases
Switch out the traditional tray for a vintage china plate or antique book. Or, create an eye-catching base by lining your tray with fabric, sand, or fine gravel.

Plant a Terrarium
Cloches make a perfect home for closed-system terrariums filled with tropical plants that flourish in warm, high-moisture environments.

Create Texture
Pair a sleek cloche with rough, natural finds like a collection of river stones or driftwood.

Wrap Up
Finish off your display with unexpected embellishments. Try surrounding a cloche in wire (as seen above), wrapping the base with a thin rope, or filling the edges of the tray with stones and moss.