Patricia Voto Developing Design for a Living World

Design for a Living World

Vegetable Ivory:
Ted Muehling is a renowned jewelry designer known for designing jewelry inspired by and using natural materials. His task led him to Pohnpei Island where he investigated the material vegetable ivory. Pohnpei Island is home to the Kapingamarangi people and is a part of Micronesia. This island is filled with mangroves, receives plentiful amounts of rain, and is home to some of the world's most unique creatures. Unfortunately, Pohnpei Island is facing overharvesting of fish and of the precious mangroves.
To promote income, the local craftsmen have turned to ivory nut palm as a material to create all sorts of products. The hard seed is easy to carve and can be easily be mistaken for the ivory of an elephant's tusk. Once Muehling had his hands on the material he was able to carve beautiful pieces of jewelry- from necklaces to cuff bracelets that have darkened in color from the natural oxidation.
Muehling uses the material to create awareness and hopefully encourage a continuing source of income for the local craftsmen.

Salmon Leather:
Isaac Mizrahi had the opportunity to use an underutilized material, Salmon Leather. Within the food industry, the skin of the salmon is often discarded and left as waste. Mizrahi worked with Salmon specific to Alaska. Alaskan Salmon makes up 47% of the private sector jobs in the area, making it a huge contributor to the local economy.
While salmon over the years had been in great abundance, in more recent times copper and gold mining have shifted the currents of the rivers and lowered the water quality- making it a challenge for them to survive. The fish also face the possibility of climate change, making it virtually impossible to migrate to Alaska.
For his final product, Mizrahi created a shift dress with a long frontless coat. The fabric was made up of tiny leather sequins representing the material in a luxurious way.

Comparison:
I think both designers were able to utilize their material to great potential. One designer chose to promote income by using something grown on trees, where as the other took unused scraps of fish skin and turned it into a sellable material. Muehling was able to carve the ivory while keeping it close to its original state, whereas Mizrahi sourced a Parisian designer to turn the leather into sequined fabric. While in both projects there was room for improvement, or different approaches, I don’t feel that one was more successful that the other. I think both Mizrahi and Muehling took sustainable materials and were able to create beautiful fashion pieces.