Camée de lait

The most bizarre jewel for this post, in material and in concept.

One of the very first plastics were made out of cow’s milk, so when in 2008 the design team of Duende collective, led by Anthony van den Bossche, were asked to create something around ‘eating together’ by “La Cuisine”, they knew what to do. The plastic pendant ‘Camée de lait’ in this picture is made out of maternel milk. This is what Cécile Fricker came up with: a pendant with your own baby’s face made out of your maternel milk plastic.

Normally you would consider plastic as one of the most ordinary, unnatural materials. Plastic is often associated with cheap, single–use items (i.e. crap), Dropping off a bottle of breast milk, to be made into plastic seems unreal. Casting the plastic-milk in a 3 dimensional mold, the same shape of the baby’s head that the milk was meant for, makes it priceless. Not only is this ‘Camée de lait’ turning the natural into unnatural, it is also turning the ordinary into something luxurious.

To me, this is the ultimate jewel to keep the memory of breastfeeding your baby alive; it is made out of breast milk and has the shape of your own child. Finally, when you wear it, judging from this photograph, it dangles happily where it came from, your breasts!