Mundane Materials-Rubber Bands

Rubber Bands may be considered by some to be mundane because they are used for all sorts of everyday things.  They stretch, they hold things together, they bunch up, they come in many colors and they can be spotted these days being used in lots of unconventional ways.  Here is a round up of some of the unusual rubber band findings including jewelry, vessels or containers some beautiful artwork!

Painted Desert Ring by Margarita Mileva

The three pieces above are examples of work by M2-Margarita Mileva of Milev Architects where her work explores “opportunity to experiment with new design challenges, ideas, materials and forms” as seen through the eyes of an architect.  Fabulous, don’t you think?  She is certainly someone who stands out as truly innovative.

The two pieces of Jewelry above are by a former SCAD student who’s work I saw at the ACC show in Baltimore (2010).  I did some research and found out she is a Metals/Jewelry major and is origionally from China.  Her work may or may not be available for sale but you can get in touch with her via her Flickr account.  I love how she uses rubber bands in such an elegant way by combining them with more precious materials.

The two rings above are by Jewelry artist and designer Colleen Baran.  She blogs about her Ring A Day project over at her blog SeeSeeBe.  Check it out, she’s got some wacky and cool rings (and other stuff).

These two pieces of artwork are by an artist I came across on Flickr; An Pham.  I don’t really know much more about her work but she explores using other ever day materials in her artwork as well.

Long Woven Earrings by Amila Hrustic

Each one of these artist works with rubber bands as well as other materials, sometimes digital, sometimes photography, architecture or landscape.  The work they do explores the possibility available to each of us in what we might consider Mundane materials.  Seeing beyond the mundane to the possibilities is what makes these artist work so interesting.

What materials do you consider Mundane but worth exploring? Next week I’ll share with you a new project I’ve begun which explores the use of the “Mundane” plastic bread tabs that comes on our bread bags.