Okay, I’m not quite wired yet, but I do plan on slowly work up to that level over the course of the day so I can go out and unwind later! I love today’s designer…. I especially love her chaos bangles (in name and form)!
[wired] is a collection of accessories made entirely from reclaimed and surplus industrial materials. The materials used come from the discard piles of various local Chicago industries and include alternator wire, rubber and transistors. Each piece is handmade individually, and is either one of a kind or produced in limited quantities. The found materials dictate the design of each piece and foster different design challenges than traditional materials.
[wired] designer Melissa Kolbusz holds a BFA in Industrial Design from University of Illinois at Chicago and also studied at the Universitá di Genova in Italy. She has worked in the fields of furniture design, engineering and architecture. In 1999 she began [wired], a project creating jewelry from recycled and surplus materials, which has since branched out into other accessories and art installations. Her work has been published in the books Green Design (NY) and Recycle: The Essential Guide (London), Style Naturally (San Fran) and featured on the WB Morning News in NYC and NBC5 News in Chicago.
In this age of mass production and big business, recycling has become an integral part of contemporary life. A positive strategy for counteracting the waste created by industry is to recycle these materials into creative, wearable accessories and fashions that challenge the designer to think outside the box. By partnering with local industries, [wired] reinvents and revamps the surplus produced by these businesses that would otherwise end up in a landfill. Every sustainable [wired] piece is an individual work of art, crafted locally and by hand, that its owner can wear for a lifetime, rather than having these materials go to waste in their original state.
Check out [wired] on Etsy, Stars and Infinite Darkness, and Elegant Roots.
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