Following on from my post a few weeks ago about the artist who makes art out of trash, here's another inspiring art project by an art student by the name of Erik de Laurens from the Royal College of Art in London. He came up with the idea of making useful products out of....left over fish scales. You wouldn't think they would be strong enough but using just heat and pressure (and no bonding agents) the guy succeeded in bonding the scales together into a material that he's called "fish scale plastic" and he's made swimming goggles, glasses frames, tumblers and other innovative objects with it.

Think of all the left over fish scales we must go through. It would be a great substitute for plastic and the texture of the material looks pretty cool too. I wonder whether the material smells funky though... he must have got the fishy smell out somehow.







The artist, who comes from South Africa, first came up with the project when he was asked to design objects for the canteen of a primary school. He sent the kids off to catch fish at the nearby beach and brought them back to eat, specifically the traditional cape kedgeree, and then he used the scales to design a range of objects. He called it the "Fish Feast."

Apparently the artist is currently looking for funding to develop the concept further. It'll be interesting to see if anything comes from it. Maybe this is the future of plastic people! What do you reckon?

Source: http://www.dezeen.com/2011/07/15/the-fish-feast-by-erik-de-laurens/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dezeen+%28Dezeenfeed%29&utm_content=Google+Reader