Yiqing Cai

Bacteria in Motion: These active eyes with backing are a common and cheap handmade material in our daily life. This "eye" is redefined in this brooch. These numerous eyes inside the brooch seem to be looking straight at your eyes through a dim glass cover forming this brooch, giving an appearance of bacteria growing inside a laboratory petri dish. However this "petri dish" can be turned continuously, which brings us back to the original features of these wobbly eyes or "play". Holding this "eye"brooch in your hand enables you to see yourself though your own eyes, when looking at the back peace of the brooch, which is polished to a mirror-like effect. Risk of fracture: At first glance, this piece of jewellery has an ambivalent situation; a flat tape consisting of a thin porcelain stripe within a silicone casing. This piece of jewellery must firstly be "broken" before it can be worn either around the neck, or the wrist. The owner can only wear my jewellery piece once it's broken, even though this piece warns the owner not to destroy it. The owner thus becomes the designer as well, as they have to complete the last step of the design process, thereby connecting the designer with the owner.