The first thing I upcycled was Spooner: a bottle opener fashioned from Silver plated spoons. I had gone back to University to do a design degree after I called time on my aimless civil service ‘career’. I had intended to use Stainless Steel spoons, only they were next to impossible to cut by hand. Not only were the Silver plated ones easier to cut, I discovered an even better design for the piece just from allowing the material to dictate my process.
We can draw pretty pictures of fanciful notions as designers, straight from our imaginations to the paper, and if we can afford it, get it made. I learned also that used materials/l objects were practically free to acquire. That was then. This is now and rubbish is king. You now have you pay just to take it away.
Working with found objects does not admit of any prejudices. That’s why I like it. I never know what’s going to happen until just before it happens. Aside from swimming, It’s the closest that I get to ‘living in the moment’.I’m as concerned at the proliferation of the ‘plant based’ phenomenon as I am at the upcycled one. It appears to me that both are a corruption of deeply held ethical beliefs in favour of opportunistic band-wagoneering. I can only hope to be wrong.
Debo Adegoke , dadstudio_ldn
