83cky
This project is transforming used medical instruments and discarded implants into jewellery, while respecting their original forms, functions, and histories. Short for post-operative, the title speaks to the life that follows an operation: for these objects, once their clinical purpose has ended, and for everyone surgery touches, patients, surgeons, nurses, carers, and loved ones.
Developed through ongoing collaborations with Dutch hospitals and medical suppliers, the collection is taking shape from donated single-use surgical tools, expired implants, and broken or trial components. Materials removed from clinical circulation but not from material relevance.
The Dutch healthcare sector alone produces around 190,000 tonnes of waste annually, much of it disposed of due to safety protocols rather than material failure. By reworking surgical tools and complex implants, I am finding ways for materials designed for the body to return to it.
As jewellery, these objects will move from clinical necessity to intimate adornment, returning to the body as carriers of memory, appreciation, material intelligence, and craft.
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