London-based Tessa Silva-Dawson is also working with leftover milk. For her Protein vessels she has used casein, an alternative to plastic extracted from milk protein in a 19th-century technique that’s similar to cheesemaking. ‘I don’t think it would be an appropriate material for mass production,’ she says. ‘It would be better if farms had such a tight loop that there wasn’t any waste at all, but as it’s happening now I am inserting myself into that system, drawing attention to waste streams that go unnoticed.’
Her method of working explores the possibility of a return to a more small-scale and localised form of making food, materials and products that might become increasingly attractive and necessary in coming decades, as we seek to minimise air miles and overproduction. ‘I source the material and make it all myself. I’m trying to bring attention to alternatives that can be found within local communities, instead of having to order materials from the other side of the world.’
This is an extract from an article that first appeared in the July/August 2019 issue of Crafts magazine
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