Unsustainable Jewellery
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07. 2.07
In the Royal College of Art show Bonnie covered here, graduate Greetje van Helmond "deals with issues of durability and resource consumption, deliberately using a basic material to create precious, but extremely fragile, objects." She notes:
"In present day life we can say that we consume a lot. Durable materials are often used for the production of goods that are typically replaced or thrown away quickly.
Contrary to this I use everyday, basic materials to create products that appear valuable and sustainable. Because of the materials I use, the products won’t last long, but long enough to stay “new”.
In one project, I create jewellery out of sugar. Sugar has the quality of growing into crystals under special circumstances. By controlling the process I allow crystals to grow around strings to form accessories."
the jewelery is created by growing sugar crystals onto cord suspended in a supersaturated solution. Just don't sweat too much while you wear it. ::Dezeen
I really like both the product and the thought behind its creation. Has anyone seen this done with tumbled crystals? I'm thinking that the crystals could be very uncomfortable to wear, but rounded or tumbled crystal beads could be very attractive looking, soft to the touch and still taste great! >>
I wish that I could go to art school to make sugar rock candy using an experiment that we all did in grade school. Would that I had thrown some sustainability words around my grade school creations, I could be an artist by now.
There are some of the nicest sugar crystals I have seen, supported by some of the best "marketing" that I have heard.