A Little Less Perfect - Huia Feather Earring Seconds Now Available
Why are there seconds of Huia feather earrings?
You might have noticed that on the Remix Plastic shop that while Huia Feather earrings have sold out, there are still seconds available, and you might be wondering why, in a company where the main guiding principle is to design out waste at the beginning of production, there are so many seconds.
The reason for this is that the earrings are made using a combination of handmade and machine-made processes and the intersection between these two techniques results in variation.
WHAT MAKES A SECOND?
Sometimes it’s very obvious that an earring is not up to standard because another colour has sneaked into the mix. We chip lots of plastic in our shredder and sometimes there is cross contamination of colours. We sort through the shredded plastic to check for these rogue colours (a time consuming process!) but occasionally pieces are missed and when the plastic is melted they show up in the finished sheet. These are obviously seconds but in other cases the decision is not so clear cut.
A rogue piece of yellow has infiltrated this feather!
COMBINING ART AND TECH
Remix Plastic’s products are made using a combination of handmade and machine made processes and the intersection of art and tech sometimes creates imperfections, or as we would describe it, the uniqueness that comes from an artisan product.
Arranging the shredded plastic ready for melting into sheets is a process that is done by hand and getting a perfectly straight and even line between the white and black plastic every time is an impossible task. When the plastic is melted into sheets, despite keeping the variables of time and temperature consistent, every sheet melts slightly differently and becomes a one of a kind product. We have perfected our technique to create more even sheets, so the seconds we produce now would be considered firsts of the original batches we made.
Our black and white sheets are more defined now than they were earlier this year.
When we take our unique handmade sheets and line them up with a computer-accurate laser cutter, there is inevitable variation in the sharpness of the line between black and white, and in the resulting proportions of the colours.
The laser cutter allows for work to be extremely precise.
And what happens to the seconds that aren’t up to standard? We put them back into the chipper and re-melt them into another beautiful piece. We also 'disassemble' the sheets and put them back in the system. Some of the plastic we have recycled up to seven times!
Combining art and tech allows us to make jewellery that is impossible to manufacture in a factory. We like the uniqueness and interest of the seconds range and make them available so that Remix Plastic minimises as much waste as possible. Give them a go, we think you will love them too!