Rubble

rubble series

As a maker who primarily works in plastics, my relationship with this substance has been a conflicted one. The seductive beauty and material magic of acrylic clashes with the disastrous impacts plastics have on our environment and health. In an effort to curb wastefulness, I’ve begun experimenting with saved offcuts and scraps. The result is Rubble, an ongoing series of brooches that recall medals and badges of honour in design, but act as emblems of contemporary conflict.

Heat-formed acrylic voids filled with "rubble" made from pigment, recycled glass, and acrylic cement, recall landfills, quarries, or industrial wasteland. The hardened, rocky slurry is both familiar and unnatural. However, its intriguing pigmentation and texture dares you to enjoy it, regardless of its substance. As embodiments of the “Waste not, want not” proverb, Rubble brooches playfully query how one might redefine their relationship to this ugly yet beautiful material.