“Soon after graduating from my MFA. at Rhode Island School of Design, I started desperately looking into my belongings for possibility. I needed to create regardless of my financial situation. I noticed I had been saving these beautifully crafted paper bags from my local food store. And as I was looking at them an idea struck me: What if I made a necklace from them?”
...The extraordinary happens, if only we commit ourselves to see it through.
-Mariana Acosta Contreras
Neckpiece by students Christian Bernal and Josue Cuenca / Medicine Boxes, duct tape/ 2016
An intensive five-day session with Mexican contemporary jewelry artist Mariana Acosta Contreras that will explore the art of transforming waste materials into a sustainable piece of contemporary jewelry through a five day “challenge” process.
How does it impact our perspective of beauty, preciousness, and value when we use egg trays or cereal boxes in lieu of gold, silver, or precious stones? Each day of the workshop students will unearth the unnoticed from everyday, disregarded objects that are discarded on a daily basis.
“As humans we live in a world full of “things.” There are so many objects surrounding us that overshadow our sense of uniqueness and our ability to marvel at the world as it vanishes in our everyday routine.
However, when you pick an ordinary object, such as a water bottle—that you drink and discard on a daily basis with no regard whatsoever—with the intention of immersing yourself in the intensive study of its form, something will shift permanently in the way you envision your existence. You will wonder at things like the creases and folds on a paper cup, or the different textures, forms, and colors on a PET bottle. It is the little things that count. If we can see the unnoticed in our world and bring it from the ordinary to an extraordinary level through diving into a transformational process along with it, we will suddenly find potential in every object and/or material. Garbage will be elevated from the trashcan to new levels where it no longer is useless. Everything will have a new purpose and the weight of our mass consumption habits will take a more mindful, functional, and conscious approach.” (1)
Neckpiece by students Sergio Carvajal and German Montero / Plastic bags / 2016
Initially this workshop is addressed to groups of design and arts students within Schools and independent studio facilities. But it can also be addressed to professionals, artists and designers in the areas of jewelry, photography, graphic and industrial design, architecture, fashion, textiles etc., who are willing to invest themselves into a different and invigorating perspective about sourcing materials to incorporate in their studio practice.
A minimum of 8 to 10 participants is suitable to start an independent workshop. Participants will be required to travel to Mexico where the workshop will take place.
If you want to join my mailing list to be contacted when there is a workshop opening or for full course outline if you are an School or independent Studio please contact me at: mariana.acosta@gmail.com
Neckpiece by Students: Ana Karen Diaz and Semiramis Solares / Plastic bottles / 2016
Thank you!