London Design Festival 2015: London product designer Ariane Prin has launched her debut homeware collection, which includes pots, trays, vases and jewellery boxes with a rusty tinge.
The designer mixed metal dust with Jesmonite – a gypsum and resin composite material – to create the handmade range, meaning every product has unique textures and colours depending on the metal dust oxidisation.
Dezeen previously featured Prin's work as part of micro-exhibition Dezeen Platform, which showcased a different designer's work each day for 30 days. She used waste material generated by Royal College of Art students to produce drawing materials for future students.
Rust continues Prin's interest in leftover materials, and the designer obtained the metal dust used from key cutting and metalworking workshops across London.
"I am the kind of person who can't throw anything away, believing that it will be of some use later on," she told Dezeen. "This is how the leftovers from a project can be the starting point of another."
The idea for the Rust collection came about while Prin was experimenting with combinations of leftover materials in her studio to create variations in texture and colour shades.
"One week later I came back and noticed the freckles which appeared on the Rust samples," she said. "I immediately saw the potential behind this. It was a eureka moment, I felt so excited."
The Rust pieces take around three days to complete, without taking into account the rusting process.
"Even if I'm not at the studio the pieces are working and oxidising while I'm not there, which is quite convenient time management," Prin told Dezeen.
"These Rust samples still work for me today as a colour library I am playing with before making a piece, and I'll keep on making them as there is still so much to explore."
The collection will be exhibited at the Herrick Gallery in Shoreditch from 19 to 27 September, as part of London Design Festival 2015.
Prin graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2011, and in addition to her own collection has worked with Jasper Conran to design tableware for Wedgwood and Waterford.
Central Saint Martins graduate Alessia Giardino also experimented with materials to create tableware pieces that mixed concrete with pigment.
Meanwhile Daniel Schofield designed products with untreated brass elements, allowing each item to develop a unique patina over time.