MOMOTARO NECKLACES (2013)
exploring play and making
Individual pieces with common roots, these necklaces are based on a Japanese folk tale - Momotaro, or Little Peachling. Resulting from an investigation into playfulness in making and design practice, I gamified my process to decide on my materials, joins and colours using dice. Writing about this project is here.
These pieces were part of Axisweb's MA Stars 2013, and were described as exploring ‘themes of carnival, folk art and tribal display with a touch of Blackpool thrown in.’
Exhibited at Material Matters, London Design Festival 2013
1900 bamboo chopsticks, hand dyed, drilled & threaded in a traditional net formation, threaded onto a hand-braided cord of cotton remnants bound with silk.
Sliced legs of a broken chair form the body of this necklace, sanded, drilled & painted, spaced with cloudy discs hand punched from plastic milk bottles. Bespoke silk tassels complete this tribal depiction of modern trash.
Peach halves lathed from a broken table into small bowls, hand dyed & printed, cup handmade beech beads. The necklace is fringed with 2d representations of the same characters, plaited into the bespoke silk cord showing the journey downriver.
displayed with hand-painted mural in 2013