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Mother of Pearl is Plasticiet's exploration on how their expertise gained from recycling plastic in the past years combined with their design skills can be merged in order to make recycled plastic stand out between other high-end design pieces and materials.
Currently available via Galerie Philia.
Plasticiet originated from an idea that was formed during a field trip in India where we saw various micro-economies popping up based on local demographic waste streams such as cotton clothes, plastic bottles and metal parts. To make a waste material appealable we underwent a thorough research on how to give these plastic products a distinct super-natural marbled or terrazzo appearance, for if the material isn’t beautiful it won’t sustain.
Given that Plasticiet’s key inspiration always comes from natural stone and rock formations it was only logical to find inspiration in the Neolithicum - the last part of the Stone Age - where our predecessors used more primitive means to come about.
To create the marbled or pearlescent dessin we first melt the material, and then start kneading and mixing it. The technique we use is very similar to taffy making for sugary candy canes. During this process the material is stretched and folded numerous times, aerating it. The tiny stretched air bubbles captured within the translucent plastic reflect light resulting in an iridescent glow resembling mother of pearl.
