Jewellery made from herbal waste

Re-Enamel: A Botanical Intervention

Yingying Lu, a jewellery designer trained in Biodesign at Central Saint Martins, explores the afterlife of botanical rituals by transforming the herbal waste left behind from wellness practices into jewellery that carries the memory of nourishment and care. Working with discarded botanical materials, her practice is rooted in the belief that the same plants that nourish us through teas, tinctures and seasonal rituals can offer a second life as material for adornment.

Inspired by the cyclical rhythms of winter gatherings and the warming ceremonies of herbal tea, Lu investigates what remains after the cup is emptied. Like seaweed gathered from cold waters and transformed into restorative brews, the herbs consumed for wellness, such as mugwort, chamomile and calendula, leave behind a residue rich in pigment and cellulose, yet normally discarded. At the same time, traditional enamel production continues to extract toxic metals from the earth, creating beauty at the expense of the environment.

What if the materials of adornment could emerge from the same botanical sources that nurture us?

Through hands-on experimentation, Lu extracted natural pigments and fibrous matter from spent herbs, combining them with reclaimed materials that echo the season, including crushed beer bottle glass, remnants of celebration, eggshells, symbols of potential, and volcanic ash, the earth's ancient memory. These components replace the mineral base of enamel and create a new material language rooted in regeneration rather than extraction.