Solar-powered!

Wear and Resist is now runing on solar energy.

Matt (my husband) has fitted more than a few solar panels and we have several large batteries. It's incredibly satisfying to see that pretty much all of the electricity we are using now is coming from the sun.

We bought our house as a bit of a wreck in 2008, and over the past ten years Matt has been painstakingly renovating the original building, which we found out as he went along that probably dates to as early as pre-1450! You can read more about our house journey here. 

MATERIALS

The plastic I use to make jewellery is mainly Perspex, with a small amount of other non-branded hard plastic. It is an acrylic made of Polymethyl Methacrylate (PMMA), which has 100% recyclability.

It is made from monomers that it can be broken back down into. It is a hard plastic valued for its durability, so not at all single-use. It has similar properties to glass, meaning it does not release chemicals at normal temperatures or break down into micro plastics. Because it can be broken down again into its monomers, which can then be used to make more acrylic, it is considered a fully recyclable circular product.

I think long and hard about the plastic I buy. A simple trip to the supermarket can be exhaustingly stressful as it seems plastic packaging is still everywhere. When my mother was sick, the many hours I spent in hospital rooms convinced me that plastic is not going away any time soon, no matter what our best intentions are. Matt and my father-in-law have both been involved in Renewables for years, and it seems that the technology involved in waste recycling is probably the only answer to our plastic crisis.

Made in the UK

Perspex has been made in the UK since 1933, and I buy my sheets from Hindley’s a family-run business in Sheffield that dates back to 1896.

They are a major supplier of Perspex to Designers, Education and Industry in the UK and also throughout the World. During Covid they provided a great deal of sheets used in medical screening and to protect key workers. Perspex is also used in a lot of medical equipment.

Recycled

I have very little waste as I feel each sheet as tightly as I can, and I recycle all of the offcuts, even the tiniest crumbs from my workbench!

Repairs

Your Wear and Resist piece should last as long as you can wear it. I offer a Repairs service for broken jewellery, and if you no longer want your item, you can return it to me to be recycled.

Sarah