Materials re-use
I am challenging myself to use the materials around me to make Balanced-Earth plant mobiles. Printed nylon remains from working as a designer-maker of nylon jewellery in the 90s. The aluminium was used to make “molds” to form the nylon. Spiralled wire comes from sketchbooks. CDs are from various sources, the blue ones were the local libraries audio books. The “bee-wire” comes from bee-hive supers. The sea-rope is collected on a local Norfolk beach. The materials all have a history.
Balanced-Earth
Norwich, England
These are the nylon offcuts I use to make the nylon frames, some I screenprinted with newspaper text, other has been screenprinted with handwritten romantic poetry.
I make plaster molds from forms I've made in clay. I have been experimenting with paperpulp since 2017 to develop a paperpulp mix which withstands the watering required by succulents. The vessels are microporous like unglazed terracotta pots and are sealed inside and outside with wax-oil, The grey is from newsprint used in the mix. They are rigid, strong and light-weight, designed to be suspended so have round bases. The are not joined to the frames, they rest within them so can be lifted out.
The wire is renewed on the bee-hive supers each spring. I try to retain the tangle in the bee-wire as I hammer and weave it into a disc-frame to fit the vessel. I stack four CDs together to cut and make a vessel frame. The nylon offcuts with screenprinted text remain from my nylon jewellery making days in the 90s.
Collected on Norfolk beaches, cleaned, untangled and woven on nylon rod (also remaining from jewellery making days).