Jewellery: Fonderie 47 Transforming Weapons of War into Luxury Jewelry

Fonderie 47 [Design For Change]  

Transforming the tools of destruction into ones of prosperity by using traditional melding techniques, Fonderie 47 reworks the steel components, reshaping it’s value and perceptions into an object of beauty, in the form of rare and very expensive jewellery pieces that are combined with other precious metals like gold. Constructed with mechanical and precision engineering hallmarks of jewellery makers, Philip Crangi and Roland Iten, the designs are quite hard-edged, sculptural and masculine in form.

[Image sources: Fonderie 47 Links Bracelets via ecouterre]

[Image sources: Fonderie 47 Earrings and ring via ecouterre]

Each piece created means the destruction of several machines. The mechanical cuff links, that snap together to form a bracelet are a limited edition numbered series and each set produced means the destruction of 100 Assault rifles; the individually designed men’s rings, each etched with the serial numbers of the rifles they used to be equated to the destruction of seventy-five rifles; and the earrings see in the region of five hundred. Sales of the jewellery feeds into the Fonderie 47 Foundation which finances organisations like the Mines Advisory Group; an organization which has been tasked by the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo to demolish weapons.

…when you see what can be produced makes you wonder why they need to create something so destructive in the first place

Additional information sourced from:
www.ecouterre.com

Additional information sourced from:
Jewellery pieces priced at: USD23,000 for earrings and USD$35,000 for the cuff links/bracelet
For further information about Fonderie 47 visit: http://fonderie47.com