• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.12 no.12
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• pp.103-110
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• 2012

Various industrial sectors have formally turned to Green Development, practicing eco-design with the goal of saving the environment. Such trend can also be applied to jewelry design and production. Jewelry, which emerged with the birth of humankind, has been a contributing factor to environmental pollution and depletion of resources due to mass production and reckless consuming patterns of the 20th century. With the arrival of the World economic crises, however, the consumption of jewelry has dropped and now the industry desperately needs a boost for revival. In this paper, we propose a way to recycle waste materials and turn them into a new kind of jewelry. We introduce various junk materials that can be reused, and how to reuse them. The new type of jewelry we aim for is environment-friendly, low-cost, and unique as opposed to identical mass production of the past. The eco-design product will likely add new value to jewelry industry. The product targets sophisticated modern consumers with conscientious, environmentally aware consuming patterns. To fulfill the needs of these consumers, we propose methods of upcycling from junk to jewelry, by combining precious stones with waste materials.