Laboratory

Photography by Richard Costa

Model Sylvia Minkova

My friend and photographer Richard Costa was very excited when he stumbled upon rolls of plastic insulating material that were being thrown away near a construction site. He told me that he wanted to create dresses with this tactile, semi opaque material and he wished that I create matching pieces of jewellery. The inspiration came from the key words “ice and white.” We set to work to make a décor in which the opposing notions of inside and outside, or natural and the unnatural would be mixed. Richard used the sheets of bubbly plastic and vintage lace to create the clothes, and I decided to make necklaces inspired by past studies in biology also during the years I had spent in a research laboratory. These are the pieces that I created:
A branch necklace was formed with twigs that were bound together with delicate white organza ribbon.
It took me a while to find an independent, organic farmer in Geneva who owns white hens that lay white, unstamped eggs. My patience was rewarded and I was able to make a very beautiful eggshell necklace. Finally, two necklaces were constructed using wire and laboratory material: spiky long pipettes for one, tiny test tubes for the other.