Scrapped

Artist Statement

“Would you like that for here?” I say, in an attempt to encourage a customer’s decision to drink their cappuccino out of a reusable mug.  As the customer looks at their phone to see the time and glances around the café to assess if there is a desirable spot to sit, I say “Tell you what, I’ll go ahead and make it for here and if you can’t finish it, then I will give you a paper cup to take the rest with you.”  Then I add, “It tastes better in this one anyway,” just to make them feel that they made the right call.  

Over the last seven years of working as a barista, I cannot count the number of paper cups that I have seen in the café’s trash can from people who thoughtlessly ordered “to-go” with no regard for how that one cup is affecting the planet.  Scrapped is my artistic response to issues that focus on mass consumption and waste dealing with the production and usage of paper coffee cups. 

For Scrapped, a jewelry installation made from café waste,I have repurposed paper coffee cups and their sleeves from the café where I work.  In addition, I am representing an array of different statistics within Scrappedwhich showcase the actual amounts of waste produced by paper cup usage and manufacturing, such as landfill contribution, carbon emissions, deforestation, and water waste.  For instance, the backdrop is woven out of paper strips from fifty-eight discarded cups to represent the fifty-eight billion paper cups that end up in landfills in the United States every year.  All of the pendants have a sterling silver frame which encapsulates a paper cup or sleeve used as the substrate with imagery depicting a representation of a statistic.  I chose jewelry as a medium because, in social settings, jewelry is often a conversation starter. I want my work to get people talking about the environment, and if one of my pendants makes someone think twice about their consumption, then it has accomplished it’s intended effect. 

The number of paper cups that contribute to landfills on an annual basis in the United States alone is staggering. Scrappedis designed to spark curiosity and initiate discourse about the impact of human consumption on the natural world.  

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The materials used in Scrappedare comprised primarily from discarded paper coffee cups, sleeves, and packaging.  For example, the weaving and substrates are made from cups and sleeves salvaged form the trash.  Furthermore, handmade paper was created from discarded coffee cups and used as substrates in several of the pendants.  In addition, packaging from the cups are incorporated into the chain of the pendants.  Additional materials include resin, sterling silver, watercolor, and coffee.