Turning energy into beauty

[gallery] Student Mae Yokoyama from the Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design created this beautiful piece made almost entirely of solar panels. What I love about this work is that she allows the size and rigidity of the circuit components to inform the structure of the necklace and leaves them exposed to create the aesthetic.

The "collar is made of solar panels, accumulating energy during daytime. When the sun goes down a string of pearls is illuminated, turning the functional look of the solar panels into a subtle and fashionable necklace." Continue reading at Konstfack.

Photos by Andreas Nyquist and Mae Yokoyama, from Konstfack.

Light as body ornamentation

Designer Kyeok Kim’s is exploring new forms of generating body ornamentation including objects that leave decorative imprints on the skin, jewelry that prints decorative traces on the skin, and stringy textures that create ornamental silhouettes.

One of his recent explorations includes a collection of jewelry that projects patterns onto the wearer's skin called Aurora. Here's how Kim describes it: "‘Aurora’ creates patterns of light on the body as ornamentation, extending the ornamented space around the body and restyling its decorative silhouette by motion. ‘Aurora’ highlights the relationship between different pieces of jewellery, by its nature the pieces interact with the another. To operate the decorative light, one must gently move the ring (containing a magnet) towards the main jewellery piece."

Illuminating glass jewelry

German-born IT consultant and designer Marc Mann has created a line of gorgeous illuminating jewelry. According to the Hilde Leiss Gallery, "Exotic deep-sea creatures, early kaleidoscopes and gothic cathredal windows served as the inspirational source for the jeweLight collection."

Mann hides small LEDs inside the glass material, which results in a soft glow that brings out the aesthetics of its natural texture and characteristics. For power, the designer discretely integrates small coin cell batteries into the clasp or a small tag that is attached to the piece.

Jewelry as our home base

Mouna Andraos, in collaboration with Sonali Sridhar, has designed Address Necklace, which "is a handmade electronic jewelry piece. When you first acquire the pendant, you select a place that you consider to be your anchor – where you were born, your home, or perhaps the place you long to be. Once the jewelry is initialized, every time you wear the piece it displays how many kilometers you are from that location."

With our increasingly mobile and transient lives, the project helps to give a sense of home, or it helps us aspire to where we want to be. The necklace implementation is great since it allows you to take it will you everywhere no matter what you are wearing.

Talk to the hand...or ring

AnalogueAesthetics creates hand-crafted accessories inspired by all things mechanical, chemical and electrical. One of their products that can be purchased on Etsy is this gorgeous ring that includes an integrated microphone. What I like about this design is that the artist wasn't afraid to let aspects of the technology directly inform the aesthetics. In this case, the grated pattern found on old microphones creates the main aesthetic texture that is also functional. I'd love to see the gestures that people make recording audio from this device.

If you're looking to buy one, it looks like they're sold out. Contact the designer here and request a backorder! *drool*