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Mana Collection ‘Spatial Card’ necklace made of Recycled Phone Cards and Plastic Magnet Latch

The Mana Collection ^[5] by TOUCH ^[6] features one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces ^[5] that cleverly string together social design and environmental responsibility, not to mention recycled treasures from the streets of Brazil. This LA based art/design collective ^[7] recently introduced a stunning line of artisan made products including furniture, home décor items, ceramics, tableware, jewelry ^[8], and limited edition items. They wisely brought on board Mana Bernardes ^[9], a young jewelry designer, poet, and visual artist from Rio de Janeiro, to oversee their hip jewelry creations. Detritus and discarded plastics never looked so good, as the Mana Collection ^[5] is proof that one (wo)man’s trash is another (wo)man’s treasure. These are, for sure, the eco-sparkly jewels of creative re-use.

Multimedia artist and designer Mana Bernardes ^[9] finds pure poetry in the flotsam of our lives and consequently is able to incorporate seemingly unusable materials such as PET bottles, phone cards ^[10], toothpicks, hair clips, plastic netting, pearls, silver, and gold into Mana’s handcrafted collection. She has also joined forces with community education social projects ^[11] at the Museum of Rio de Janeiro and the European Design Institute of Sao Paulo, where she works with teenagers and students teaching jewelry making and entrepreneurial design skills.

With mention in the Dec/Jan 08 issue of Dwell ^[12] and an upcoming launch with US retailers, TOUCH’s Mana Collection ^[5] is slated to bring a bit of resourcefulness, humor, and doubletake to sustainable style wardrobes everywhere. We salute their team-based efforts!

+ TOUCH ^[13]
+ Mana Collection ^[14]