Aqua Collection
From plastic bottle to wearable jewellery
Plastic bottles originated as a means of convenience, but now they have become an environmental curse. An estimated eight million tons of plastic are dumped in our oceans every year, yet only about nine percent of the plastic we have ever produced has actually been recycled.
A few years ago I saw images on the internet of rivers and rivers of plastic polluting parts of Indonesia. The destruction they could wreak on the environment shocked me. And ever since I had been thinking about working with plastic bottles. This is how the Aqua Collection came along. Our eco-conscious Aqua Collection elevates the plastic bottles to wearable art. It demonstrates that recycling and reusing plastic can be fashionable as well as kind to the planet.
From pollution to purpose
The collection is personal to me. For over 15 years, I’ve been committed to making sustainable, ethical and environmentally friendly accessories. Like many other small businesses, however, I’ve been impacted by Covid-19. It hit the artisans I work with hardest. These are highly skilled women who have been making some of my jewellery for many years, using the money they earn to support their families. They are loyal and committed and have skills that have been developed over many years. When the demand for my jewellery slowed, they lost some of their income.
Using some personal savings, I commissioned the collection of discarded plastic bottles from my home town in China. Thousands of bottles were eventually collected and cleaned before the process of turning them into the ultimate eco-conscious accessories.