"Be Blessed." Jewelry for the Environment

Lately I've been considering the excessive amount of waste we produce, and am contemplating elegant solutions that redefine our relationship with this pollution. I believe diminishing production for the future, repurposing through the utilizing of trash as a material resource, and educating public awareness about the hazards while inspiring potential innovation to be critical for our future wellbeing.

Prayer Flags (Nepal) by Joshua Baker

Consider for a moment that everything we are will eventually decay while the legacy of our choices continues to impact the direction of this world well beyond us. Tibetan flags are thought to release their prayers into the wind while being decomposed in the process. New flags are hung with their hope of spreading goodwill beginning again. The engagement and decision to continually bring the light of our conscious awareness to an imperfect world is itself significant. Wouldn't it be great to utilize this acknowledgment of our own mortality as a source to creatively produce a world better than we found it? I believe people are incredible, and have the intellectual imagination to repurpose waste into beautiful objects of practicality and decoration.

At the moment we've become so normalized to purchasing products wrapped in an unnecessarily excessive amount of packaging that succumbing to feelings of powerlessness is natural despite growing awareness of the dire consequences should we continue without systemic changes. I've been wondering if it's even possible to walk back to the simplicity of our ancestors, that ultimately successfully produced us, with the speed and scale necessary for our continued collective wellbeing. Can the efficiency of production, storage and commerce of items contained in plastic (almost every food item for example), ever be matched with a more personal plastic-free transaction in modern society? It honestly doesn't seem likely, but actively encouraging that direction through our choices is nevertheless worthwhile, and urgently necessary.

Petroleum-based plastics essentially never decompose, but break down into a smaller form of their toxic constituent molecules through a process called photodegradation. Even plastics made from a biodegradable alternative like corn can remain intact equally as long as plastics made from oil or natural gas. Our current utilization of single-use plastics intended to be promptly thrown out after opening the packaging of almost every product imaginable is absurd. A curvier beaked whale was recently found starved to death with over 88 pounds of compacted plastic in its stomach. This waste turns up in the most remote locations on our planet, and was even recently discovered in the Mariana Trench. It's conservatively estimated that we're producing over 300 million tons of plastic with over half that for single-use, and 8 million tons going into the ocean each year; all of this will not decompose for hundreds or thousands of years. We're quickly filling our only home with a new type of natural resource that is unfortunately toxic to life.

Through my own daily decisions and artistic ambitions I am committed to reducing personal refuse produced, and confronting the issue of our collective reliance on disposable and single-use plastics. These themes find promotion through various mediums of my artistic endeavors, but it is through jewelry making specifically I'd like to mention now.

Materials

Over time I've collected many objects that can be fashioned into jewelry. Sometimes this is the beads, stones, metal rings, wire and chains typically expected. Sometimes this is trash from the ground during a hike through the mountains, or throughout our urban landscapes. Sometimes it's cardboard and plastics from product packaging. Beauty can be found and fashioned from all of this. A willingness to see beyond the ingrained behavior of denial as we walk by litter on the streets, and detaching from cultural concepts of waste can be helpful. I believe that all of us are capable of being open to the recognition of colors and forms we find personally joyful that are literally littered throughout the world. Even the minor act of noticing, and picking up one scrap from the ground has a positive influence beyond recognition. That choice is free to make, and none of us are powerless in this.

Methods

The jewelry I've been creating are designed to incorporate such materials that each individual finds along their own journey through the world. Construction methods are often transparent and thus foster greater integration of ideas from all socioeconomic sectors of society. Great wealth or skill are not necessary to access one's own creativity or take action to reduce pollution. Wire springs and spirals are typically used to hold items of paper or plastic. The connections are strong enough to hold for a time, but eventually release, and thus require the introduction of new items. As with Tibetan prayer flags, I'm encouraging people to write their own blessings and prayers on the discarded materials attached. The intentions and energetic influence of these prayers are released into the world through our daily movements and activities. Write as many blessings as you wish, the more items incorporated, the more trash removed from the environment. While these products exist within the world as it is, mirroring aspects of the pollution and mindless consumption of capitalistic society, they also encourage greater awareness, engagement and repurposing on a deeply personal level. It's my hope that by providing a mechanism that positively reinforces habitual redirection of our relationship with discarded materials we can reorient the problem fundamentally; thus giving individuals and society greater access to their own creative potential and empowerment.

Result

Additionally, a portion of funds received from each "Be Blessed." jewelry product purchased will go towards the Ocean Conservancy Fighting for Trash Free Seas. This alliance unites industry, science and conservation leaders with the common goal of healthy waterways. The alliance provides a constructive forum focused on identifying opportunities for cross-sector solutions that drive action for the prevention and removal of trash from the ocean while fostering greater innovation.

Please consider purchasing or sharing the story of this jewelry to support the artistic direction of the Resident Life Artist, and greater movement toward human enlightenment that is our destiny. Like prayers carried on the winds of time, may we all be so empowered to make a cleaner world and brighter future.

Be Blessed!