The Daily Star- Whereas most people would scarcely give a pile of old keys a second glance, the Vanina girls from Lebanon see in these disused materials new life as glittering jewelry.
Tatiana Fayad and Joanne Hayek have been friends since they were small children and first started collecting random objects as potential materials for new jewelry pieces while they were in college.
That was seven years ago. Now they are working together in a northern suburb of Beirut as Vanina – a rather cheeky name inspired by a French song from the 1970s.
Rather than buy new materials for their accessories, for example, the duo find value in discarded objects that have special aesthetic qualities.
“We took the concept of taking an everyday object and giving it a higher value,” Joanne Hayek says. “It’s a call for waste management.”
One of their earliest jewelry collections, “Coined,” was comprised of old Lebanese coins decorated with beads, patterns, or words.
Another, “Disc-carded,” involves using bits of metal from CD discs, which have lost their appeal since the advent of iPods and iPhones.
Parts of the keys mentioned in the introduction were used in a collection called “Unlocked.”
Like solar power versus oil, their work replenishes the earth while others, who are still stuck on the idea that only gems and precious metals are worthwhile as adornments, extract from it.
Of course, they aren’t the first in Lebanon to join a growing number of international artists and designers who reuse existing materials in order to spare landfills and slow down unsustainable consumerism.
Although they are using recycled materials that are normally frowned upon in Arab societies, the pair have been incredibly successful and their designs have appeared in several respected fashion magazines.