Show RCA 2011: Royal College of Art graduate Erik de Laurens has made a pair of swimming goggles, spectacles and beakers out of fish scales.
De Laurens invented a plastic material made only from fish scales, treated under heat and pressure with no extra binding agents.
Coloured objects can be made by dying the scales first.
He presented the goggles alongside beakers, spectacle frames and a table inlaid with slices of the material, plus a water dispenser made of fish leather.
Called The Fish Feast, the project was inspired by the huge number of scales that the fishing industry discards.
See more work by this year’s Royal College graduates here.
Here’s some more information from Erik de Laurens:
The fish feast
The fish feast started when I was asked to design objects for the canteen of a primary school of Macassar, a township of Cape Town.
When I was a kid the sea was for me a very important source of joy and daydream which surely led me to design.
I decided to create a monthly event in which the pupils of one class would be brought to a fishing day on the nearby beach.
Then they would go back to school with the fish they have caught and prepare the traditional cape kedgeree.
To accompany this feast he designed a range of object related to fish.
A water dispenser made with fish leather. Tumblers realised with the fish scales and a table cloth which has a pattern that explain how to build your own boat.
In continuation of ‘the fish feast’ I created a surprising material made of 100% fish scales (no added compound).
The fishing industry generates several circumstances where many tonsof fish scales are leftover.
Using this waste as resources for the production of fish-scale-plastic, I tried to highlight the potentiality of these industrial flaw.
In order to test the material I have designed 3 pairs of goggles and glasses inspired by swimming goggles and a table with an inlay of a fish. I have also extended the range of colours in the tumbler previously designed.
I am currently looking for funding to push the development of this material further.
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