At the Optimist Daily, we love sharing stories of people turning waste sources into beautiful art. In today’s edition of trash-turned-treasure, let us introduce you to Jacqueline de la Fuente, a London-based designer who is turning cardboard and paper waste into decorative vases.
To do this, de la Fuente invented a clay recipe herself in which she collects old paper products, shreds the materials by hand, and soaking them in water to make a sort of pulp. The result is a sort of malleable clay, which de la Fuente uses to sculpt quirky vases that she colors using environmentally-friendly, water-based paints.
“Paper clay vases came about organically through my slight obsession with shapes, form, and my love for sculptures and vases,” de la Fuente said. “I had always wanted to work with ceramics but being a full-time mum to two young kids proved going to a studio was difficult. This is when I started to look at different materials to create objects.”
One of the unique aspects of de la Fuente’s approach is that she sculpts the vases by hand. In the process, she leaves traces of fingerprints and natural curves to create one-of-a-kind pieces. The one downside is that the vases can’t hold water like a traditional vase, but de la Fuente suggests filling them instead with dried flowers.
Image source: Jacqueline de la Fuente
