Eclastic

Eclastic“ (Eco & Plastic) aims at producing delightful jewelry, made of all kinds of discarded plastic. Any water/soda bottle or CD is used to make imaginative pieces of art. The Eclastic Jewelry is 100% hand-made. Each piece is unique.

We cut, burn, bake, melt and assemble each piece with a lot of patience and respect for the environment.

“Around 2 years ago, one of the Maasai working at the camp, Steven,  gave me a gift. A small elephant necklace made out of cow bone. It was an unexpected gift that I really appreciated. Once home, I tried to cut the same shape on a DVD but it was harder than expected. The trunk was getting broken all the time, the plastic was not melting together, the colours were fading. I did hundreds of experiments before I got it right. I started to sell the Elephant necklace at Mara Bush Camp – Private Wing and people loved them!

We got featured on the Air Kenya magazine “Ndege News” and some people came to the camp just to buy the small red elephant necklace. I was very proud, but not totally satisfied.

My mum told me once that Elephants with the trunks up bring good luck and that is what everyone needs, isn’t it? So I started to change the original design.

Cutting was even more challenging than before. But the result was much nicer. I even dare to say; rather fabulous! At the same time I discovered metal stamping. What a cool thing. I couldn’t help but fell in love with it.

But plastic cannot be hammered…so I’ve tried to write something on a piece of aluminum taken from an old broken teapot. I wrote a message to myself “NEVER GIVE UP”. I wear it all the time.

I always liked challenges, but this one is a tough one.

Eclastic, Women & Communities

The other aspect of Eclastic is helping the community and women in particular!!

Here is one small story:

I have met Josephine some time back. She is young, very shy and mother of 2. She is from a rural area in Western Kenya. She has been helping me for a while now with small and easy tasks, like removing the metallic part from the dvd’s or flattening the plastic bottles.

Then I decided it was time for something new.

One afternoon, while her husband was taking care of the baby,  I showed her how to cut plastic flowers out of plastic bottles.

She looked at me surprised when I started cutting circles. I asked her to follow my example. Only then did I realize that she had never held scissors before in her life. For me, a city girl from Italy, holding scissors or a pen is so normal. It never dawned on me that it was not an obvious thing worldwide.

We started  slowly to cut together. Step by step Josephine learned to use the scissors and to cut circles. A slow process but she improved. She had to leave before we could make a flower of the cuttings. I did it on my own.

The next day I showed her the flowers I made from her cuttings. She could not believe her eyes. “Have I done that?”

YES YOU DID!

To get in touch and learn more about this small but brilliant enterprise, go to website: Eclastic

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