FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Lu answers the whys and whats behind her process. For more in-depth information and sources on each of these topics, follow the Process Journal
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Aluminum in its freshly refined form is often touted as a ‘sustainable’ metal. In the sense that it can be recycled many times over while maintaining many of its properties, this is true. But the process of extracting and refining this metal is extremely energy-intensive, requiring massive amounts of water and electricity.
In a world where resources are already strained, mining and refining a metal that is so easily recyclable doesn't make sense, especially when recycling uses only 5% of the energy required to refine it.
The jewelry industry tells us that silver, gold and platinum are precious. That aluminum is cheap. But the reality is, the extraction of any virgin metal, precious or not, carries real harm. So I work with what already exists and strives to show the value of its beauty. -
It's a fair question. I could use recycled silver or gold. Plenty of jewelers do. But I kept coming back to aluminum, not because it's cheap, but because the story of value around metals is more fiction than fact.
Aluminum was once more valuable than gold. In the early 1800’s, it was known as The King’s Metal. Then capitalism and industrial extraction made it no longer ‘fine.’
That shift wasn't about the metal. It was about scarcity, colonialism and who controlled the supply. Gold and silver were mined from stolen lands, often by enslaved labor, then hoarded by empires to create artificial value. Those very hierarchies are still in place today and continue to shape what we call precious.
I use aluminum because I want to redefine value, not by what is rare or extracted with harm, but by what is already here. -
I use Argentium silver wire made from 100% recycled silver. It's not perfect and not where I want to end up. My goal is to eventually make my own wire without the use of gas, though that may be impossible, but for now it's the best I can find.
Argentium tarnishes less than sterling silver, which means less cleaning and polishing over time. It's as sustainable as they come at a reasonable price point while I keep working toward something better.
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By now most of us know that petroleum is harmful to both planet and people. I don't use petroleum because it is not only environmentally harmful but because if you dig deep enough into any colonialist past or current war, you’ll hit oil or other natural resources, like for example, gold.
What we don't always realize is that plastic is oil. And the jewelry industry runs on it. Wax for carving and molds, oil-bonded sand for casting, plastic containers, tools and packaging.
For me, avoiding petroleum started as an experiment. What can be done without such a crucial (yet so harmful) element of jewelry making? I still use electricity, though, and my dream is to build a furnace that runs on fire alone without gas.
It's not about being perfect. It's about seeing what's possible when you refuse to accept that things have to be done the way our current systems say they have to be. -
Everything creates waste, which is why I say low waste instead of zero. And creating from waste doesn't always mean waste-less.
In modern sand casting, burnt sand gets thrown out after one use. Scraps of metal get lost in the process. I mix my own casting sand, so I can replenish it with just a little water after each use instead of discarding it. I keep every bit of aluminum that comes through the studio—shavings, filings, whatever. And when I work with the found aluminum, I clean off the plastic lining before melting so nothing toxic gets left behind.
Plastic leftover from both nearly every type of jewelry casting is an issue too, and why I use beeswax instead of modern jewelers’ mold wax. Microplastics that can’t all be picked up and remelted from creating molds from this ‘wax’ is often left behind. -
You may have noticed the hours to create a piece on each product page. When working with repurposed materials we don’t inherently see the value in it because let’s call it what it is— trash. While I work toward and believe in a world where the things that are already here hold a higher value than something that kills both earth and all of us animals, it is for now now how we all see it. And that is okay.
When I share the hours of creation time on each of my pieces, I am showing you the value of my labor. It doesn’t account for it all of course: the research, the material searching, the trials and errors. After all the cost of my materials doesn’t always come with a sticker price, but does come with a whole lot of time.
People don't often look at my aluminum wares and agree tha yes that should cost this much. But they look at silver and do, because we've been told it holds value. So for now, my value is my time.
In honor of full transparency, my formula for each piece is such:
labor x 20€ + materials + 20%