The brief for this project was to design and make a product to be sold in the GSA Shop. I was keen to merge my passion in sustainability with my interest in jewellery design. Plastic pollution is a serious threat to our planet and in the past year awareness of this has significantly increased. I wanted to create a piece of jewellery that proved that plastic is not a waste product and can be transformed into something beautiful and precious.
There was a lot of experimentation involved before I managed to create the perfect plastic 'earth' disk for the necklace. At first the samples were very rough...
The melting technique I was using was not producing a consistent enough form so I designed and built a press for melting and shaping the plastic. The design allowed the force on the melting plastic to be gradually increased, allowing for a smooth uniform surface on the disk.
Once again there were many samples involved before I created the perfect disk. This involved varying the amount of plastic, time, temperature and even the number of turns of the press.
I decided to pair the plastic with brass as this improved the quality and weight of the necklace. I also liked the idea of treating the plastic like a gem by surrounding it with a decorative metal.
The finished necklaces were sold at a special exhibition at the GSA shop.
My project design journal, covering the product development in detail can be found below.
