Food for Thought

At each show I do people often point and laugh at my popcorn earrings. I always receive questions and statements like “is it real?”, “you thought of everything”, laughing and often just strange looks. These all made me question, am I crazy?, and are there other crazy people out there like me. Sure enough there are, look at what these other designers are doing with food.

Clover Robin is another designer who is pushing the boundaries between food and the senses within her design experimentation - her work includes zips and light switches made from chocolate. By exploiting new and existing materials and processes, Robin transforms familiar and well-known products and manipulates our perspectives and perceptions.

Popcorn earrings by Fusion Ethos Fashions

Chocolate zip by Clover Robin
Chocolate light switchesby Clover Robin

Another designer using food for color and as a design material is Christoph Brach who showcased their Raw Color project at the Milan Furniture Fair. The Raw Color project is an ongoing visual research project about vegetables and their colors. Their work takes vegetables and purifies them, transforming them into natural inks and using them in modern printing processes by filling inkjet printer cartridges to create a vegetable color palette.

Raw Color project

Other designers are taking a more product-driven approach and are playing with food in a witty and playful way. Some are also working from a more responsible perspective and are on the look out for new eco and sustainable Greetje van Helmond creates products that appear valuable, yet are made from basic everyday materials such as sugar and flour, while offering up a new beauty in the rawness of their design. Her beautiful sugar jewellery and wall made from bread demonstrate beauty and tactility, as well as fitting into the debate about sustainability and the drive to find new materials with which to work.

Sugar necklace by Greetje van Helmond

Bread Wall by Greetje van Helmond

Bread lamp by Tomas Alonso (OKAY studio)

These findings only prompt me to explore new wearable food ideas. I'll keep you updated!