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...
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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.
![](https://pro2-bar-s3-cdn-cf5.myportfolio.com/53dbd18e-092b-4842-82a9-73cab04646db/6d05c16d-2ab7-46e1-a90f-0b634499349e_rw_1200.png?h=2ce5c6457ac247b47ef3cc4b852f2cbb)
![](https://pro2-bar-s3-cdn-cf.myportfolio.com/53dbd18e-092b-4842-82a9-73cab04646db/b46269dd-cfd8-4511-a38e-6a7f2bb2cdd0_rw_1200.png?h=647afb9c2db97d62399ae392f92304e1)
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.
![](https://pro2-bar-s3-cdn-cf4.myportfolio.com/53dbd18e-092b-4842-82a9-73cab04646db/f11268eb-9a18-472e-a2d2-a06ad39f69de_rw_3840.png?h=994f5866ace2338b168dbccd4ec0244d)
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.