SAE HONDA
PEOPLEText: Miwa Yokoyama
Sae Honda is an Amsterdam-based jewelry artist creating artificial stones from recycled plastics. In commemoration of the publication of her collection EVERYBODY NEEDS A ROCK from torch press, her work was exhibited at the bookstore Utrecht in Harajuku.
“As diamonds are just a product from the underground activity of the earth formation, my stone is sediments produced from modern culture. I produce a new value in wasted plastics, which are often overlooked, by carefully treating and celebrating them, and propose multiple views to ordinary life.” (EVERYBODY NEEDS A ROCK)
© Sae Honda
Please introduce yourself.
I currently live and work in Amsterdam, Netherlands and learned jewelry at Gerrit Rietveld Academie. Its jewelry department is an interesting community of people who explore various expressions in the field of jewelry. I use multi-media and identify myself as a jewelry artist and also just an artist.
EVERYBODY NEEDS A ROCK, 2016 © Sae Honda
What did inspire you to make jewelry from wasted plastics?
When I was learning the value of jewelry in the college, I read an article about new stones made by a mixture of plastics, which were found at Kamilo Beach, Hawaii where a large quantity of trash is drifted from the Pacific. That made me imagine that the new stones might be a valuable material in the future. I imitated the formation process of plastic stones that the plastic trash is melted by heat of camping fire or cleaning activity and becomes a stone by integrating with natural objects and I enjoyed to see nature in the artificial stones.
My stone is made by a combination of found trash at the particular place and time. I record scenery, weather, sounds, and smell of the place.
What is difficulty of the making process?
I pay attention to a range of my control and how to imitate nature while keeping quality. It is also hard to design jewelry because I need to decide which element such as quality of each stone, a narrative, or traditional design I should emphasize most.
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