“Everything that helps reduce the suffering of living beings, is an example of wisdom.” (Enn Kasak)
I have no intention of making hundreds and hundreds of copies of the same object. In contrast, I want to create unique objects of meaning. Not fashion accessories, but narrative artifacts. Not statements, but questions. They are not trendy because they are not of this culture nor time. Neither are they pieces of egocentrical glamour. And their meaning itself is an enigma, a puzzle with no answer – at least not known to me. But an answer I myself am also still looking for.
I strive to make objects with which the owner feels a personal and emotional connection. Things that would not be thrown away. They would reside outside of the regular product life cycle. With each piece I am asking my audience – what is the future we are really moving towards? What would we want it to be, but also what would it need to be? What’s really stopping us from creating a world we have been promised? And what have we done today to reduce suffering?
I live in the forest near Tallinn, Estonia, with my partner in life, Liina Lelov, in a small house of low environmental impact. We both are science-curious techno-optimists, and have profound respect towards nature and our surroundings. This is our home, this is also where we produce all of our objects, both digital and real. In less than 50 m2 space we have our living corner, home office and jewellery studio, with a small and isolated space for applying colors and varnish. This all minimizes the ecological footprint of not only our production, but our life in general. According to the Footprintcalculator, our global footprint is currently exactly 1, my personal Earth Overshoot Day being 14th of January. Though this does fluctuate by a few points every now and then, as some weeks require more driving than others.
The objects are stereolithographic prints made with Form 3, an industrial quality compact SLA printer. We usually produce ca 4-5 pairs of earrings with one print. Most of the items are made-to-order, many of them unique, with no intent of replication. All prints are finished by hand, smoothing out the support connections and minute corrections of surface in the rare cases of printing glitches. Several layers of coatings are added – starting from a plastic primer, continuing with several layers of the main colour, finished off with 2-3 layers of protective varnish. Each pair requires several hours of work, from visual design to the final object.
The resulting high quality pieces should last for a lifetime, if properly cared for. However, as all delicate objects are prone to breakage when dropped, they should be storaged in a proper case when not worn. In the rare case of attachment pin breakage, I will be offering free repairs.