Fine jewelry and luxury goods may not appear to have much in common with discarded electronic innards, but look deeper and you’ll find that circuit boards are riddled with precious metals such as silver, gold, and copper. Ranging from elegant dangling earrings to sperm-count-shorting skivvies, these seven upcycled circuit-board designs coax the castoffs’ hidden mettle (or is that hidden metal?) back to life. In fact, many of the pieces were part of a group show (“Jewelry_cycle”) in 2008 that sought to raise awareness about the mining industry, e-waste, and overconsumption. And if upcycled metal undies don’t grab people’s attention, we don’t know what will.
SLAM DUNK
When it comes to dedication, no one has anything on junk-metal artist Gabriel Dishaw, who cobbles together metal scraps, bits of wire, and old Intel chips to create detailed replicas of his favorite shoes. The kicker? Each hardwired sneaker is a perfect size 9.5.
BROOCHING THE SUBJECT
Electronic hardware takes a surprisingly pretty turn with David Casella’s floral-esque brooch of recycled circuit boards, anodized aluminum, and brass.
PINNED DOWN
Hand-cut into 1-inch circles, then attached to deadstock sterling-plated hairpins, these wayward circuit boards find a new purpose in curbing recalcitrant locks and flyaways.
+ Go Digital Circuit Board Hair Pins
[...] here for the others. No [...]
[...] [Gabriel DiShaw via Ecouterre] [...]
[...] something tech related like circuit boards) and the rest follow suit (or manties, I should say). Ecouterre.com broke the story Jan 27th (featuring many of the Metal Art Critique Collective members work from our [...]
This is rad! I love jewelry made by existing materials. If you do too – you should check out Sonja Nuttall’s watches – 12.3.6.9