With his colorful jewelry creations, Thai artisan Danai ups the ante on floral designs. He doesn’t depict flower imagery in his earrings, necklaces, and hair clips; he incorporates actual flowers.
Petals of orchids, bougainvillea, miniature roses, and more are dipped in resin, which dries as a clear, protective coating over the flower. It is an act of preservation that captures nature in its full, vibrant aliveness.
While the jewelry itself has a delicate aspect to it, the road to perfecting this process was anything but smooth. Danai and his wife, Ilkay, went through years of experimentation to arrive at this end product. Hearing him describe their early forays sounds downright scientific. “We got a small bathtub, filled it with an electrolytic solution and placed anodes in there. We placed flowers in as cathodes wired to a DC rectifier and went home.” It didn’t work.
For two years, they searched for the right approach, until they unlocked the mystery of their electro-forming process. Now, all these years later, they run an incredible operation, employing local women and prioritizing environmentally conscious means of creation.
Perhaps there is no way to stave off the ageing and decay that is a natural part of life. But in Danai’s workshop, the ephemeral and the permanent court each other in the form of a simple flower. |
