 Welcome to Design at Home. I'm Tiffany, an educator at Cooper Hewitt's Masonian Design Museum. Today, in celebration of Earth optimism, we're going to talk about designers who create new and unique jewelry using recycled and found materials. Then we'll practice our own sustainable accessory design using found materials from around our home in the face of climate change. Designers, researchers, scientists, and many others all over the world are doing their part to adapt, offset, and help the world recover from the human impacts that have caused environmental damage. While there are lots of ways to do your part in making the world a more sustainable place, one way is by recycling materials that already exist and reducing waste. Let's check out some designers who give new life to found and recycled objects through design. Check out this necklace from Ramona Solberg found in Cooper Hewitt's collection. Do you notice anything familiar? Hanging from a simple cord with red beads at the end is a pendant that's made up of a plastic bag holding four objects, a toy car, a domino, a wooden coin, and a Coca-Cola bottle cap. Now wait a minute, can these everyday objects really be worn as jewelry? Well, Ramona Solberg shows us that yes they can. Through careful composition, which means arrangement, each of these items, which may otherwise have been discarded into a landfill, has been carefully arranged and re-created into something beautiful that can be worn and tells a new story. A student of Solberg's, artist and teacher Ron Hewitt took the idea of using found objects to tell a story one step further. He used found objects and jewelry to show and represent his own story about his Chinese-American identity. Hewitt used his talents in traditional silversmithing to create designs that frame and elevate objects like shards of pottery, discarded beads, and even a domino inspired by his former teacher, Ramona Solberg. Another designer that shows us how what might have otherwise been trash can be transformed into treasure just through the power of design is Robert Ebbendorf. This is illustrated in his color core personal adornment necklace collaboration that's in Cooper Hewitt's collection. The necklace is made simply from recycled clothespins which hold blue and purple and gray pieces of torn paper. This necklace isn't valuable because it's made from precious stones or expensive metals, but rather its value comes from the fact that its repurposed and recycled materials have been arranged and designed in a new and interesting way. Designers continue to give new life to recycled materials even today. Amiko Oi makes wearable accessories out of something that you might recognize. You might even have some in your home. Amiko's designs are made up of hundreds of recycled and repurposed Legos. While Legos were something that Amiko once used to build and play, rather than throw them away as she grew up, she now uses them to build playful jewelry. In her most recent work, she uses Lego to make eye pendants that represent the differences in all people and encourages empathy and inclusion. There's no right or wrong way to recycle and repurpose to do your part to make the world a more sustainable and more beautiful place. Inspired by the designers who use recycled and repurposed materials to create jewelry, our design challenge is to create an accessory that tells a story about your identity using recycled and repurposed materials around your home that otherwise might have gone thrown away. Step one, gather your materials. Before we get started, collect the supplies that you're going to use to make your accessory. I found a stack of coffee filters that I can't use for their intended purpose, so I'm going to rethink them into jewelry. I also collected the tabs off of the cans of my kitten's food and a little bit of extra yarn from a knitting project. What you gather will be different for everyone, so get creative in what you collect. Let the materials you have available to you help guide your design. Step two, brainstorm how you can assemble your materials. You can brainstorm your ideas by drawing pictures, talking out your ideas with your family or friends, or even experimenting with the materials themselves. Here are some things to consider. How will your design be worn? Will it be a necklace, a belt, a bracelet, or something else entirely? What story will you try to tell? Will you try and tell the story of one or two specific found objects? Step three, build, attach, and connect your materials into your chosen accessory. Once you know what you want to design, start to attach your materials together to create one cohesive piece. Maybe you'll do this with string or yarn, maybe you'll use tape or glue, or maybe you'll discover an entirely new way to bring your design to life. Don't forget, if you're using sharp materials to build your design, always be sure to ask an adult for help. Step four, adjust for size. Whether it's made for you to wear or made for someone else, try it on and adjust it to make sure it fits just right. Step five, put it on and let the whole world see your story. Here is the accessory that I made. It's made from coffee filters and canned tabs from a container for my kitten's food. It combines two of my favorite things that I do in the morning. Drink coffee and spend time with my pets. Now I can wear it and remember them wherever I go. What did you design? We would love to see your designs. If you or an adult would like to share them with us, you can do so by posting them on social media and using the hashtag SmithsonianEDU. For more ways to experience design at home, you can head over to our website or check out our page on Smithsonian's Learning Lab. You can also learn more about the ways that you can be an active citizen of the earth and contribute to making our planet a better place by visiting the Smithsonian's conservation commons. Thank you so much and we'll see you next time. Bye!