Like many of us, I'm romanced by jewelry when it has an "untouchable" quality - when, with the first glance, you feel it ought to be on display. Each time I wear such a piece, I want to look at it and experience that first gasp of delighted disbelief. Mana Bernardes is a designer whose recycled pieces inspire such delight.

This is recycled?
This is Nylon?
This is reclaimed phone cards with bamboo toothpicks?


Leave it to Mana to elevate toothpicks to the status of precious material! The design group TOUCH has picked up the works of Mana as part of its mission to promote emerging designers whose works are hand-made and sustainable. Mana's work stands out for its bold, art-nouveau vibe and mastery of unusual, difficult materials such as recycled acetate, mesh wiring and found objects. The outcome is a breakthrough in the realm of creative re-use.



The sense of "untouchable" is especially desirable in recycled and reclaimed jewelry - it proves that previously discarded materials can be made precious, and that preciousness is not so much an innate quality of the material, but a proof of a magical eye in design.

Images: TOUCH