about eng

+] about

Sasja Saptenno (accessorylab)

update | 09

LAST MODIFIED [11|2009]

Dutch-born designer Sasja Saptenno (Friedrichs) provides bike tire jewelery and textiles since 1995. Working with used, common, flexible materials and traditional crafts, she designs eco-jewelry and 3d-shawls. For series she works with a dutch manufacturer.

+[ Nicole Miles Stylecaster.com | may 2009

It's been said that the beauty can be found in the most obscure places. How about a blown out bike tire in the neighboring bike shop?

For Dutch designer Sasja Saptenno, bike tire inner tubes offer her a source of beautiful inspiration that translate magnificently into her art-like accessories collection. Since 1995, Saptenno has created necklaces, bracelets and shawls out of tire rubbish. Often spending hours on end learning the characteristics of the rubber, Saptenno can get lost in her own thoughts reconstructing and deconstructing the material to make new forms.. Saptenno's creations have quite a reputation and if you are daring enough to wear her one of- a-kind pieces, prepare for some major physical admiration from strangers.

+] Andrew at bikehacking | march 2009
In Holland, biking pretty much everywhere is the norm. According to Worldhum.com there are almost as many bikes in Holland as there are people.

In Holland, there are approximately 16 million people and 13 million bikes. Multiply the number of bikes x 2 and you get a rough calculation of at least 26 million inner tubes. What happens to all those inner tubes when they are beyond repair? Jewelry designer Sasja Saptenno has found a creative way for people to accessorize with them! Sasja obtains her materials from bike stores, neighbors, and even off of her own bike!

+] Kristen Underwood

at www.treehugger.com | march 2009

Sasja Saptenno, jewelry designer from Holland, has found one creative and fashionable use for all of those blown bike tires - and in her words "in Holland, many people have a bicycle!" Each of accessories, including the necklaces, bracelets and shawls are all made from recycled materials.

Many of the necklaces are chunky, layered pieces, which is in style this season. A few of the pieces, we have to be honest, look like the paper garlands you make to hang on christmas trees, but maybe with the right outfit, they work. Saptenno picks up used bike inner tubes from bike stores, neighbors and even off her own bike after unfortunate mishaps. The bracelets are also chunky, and stick out from the arm. The bracelets are probably not something you could wear every day, but they would definitely be a great conversational piece at a party, or a lead-in to talking about eco-friendly fashion and recycled jewelry.

Saptenno jewelry can be found in stores and museum stores around the world.

+] Charlota | may 2009
Our first stop is Holland where we will meet Sasja Saptenno. She has one of the most unusual and unexpected aesthetics I've seen at this point. Saptenno is an eco-friendly designer who will "spend many hours with an material. I construct and de-construct and am fascinated by the endless possibility of it." One such material that Saptenno has deconstructed and reconstructed is the inner tube of bicycles. She has collected them from neighbors, bicycle stores, and even used her own. She makes necklaces and bracelets from them, and she even makes shawls in various colors, called a bulb shawl, from PET bottles! Saptenno actively incorporates her background in textile and fashion design, and graphic design. She has displayed her distinguishing works in exhibitions since 1995 and her pieces can be found in stores around the world. Saptenno has been featured in magazines Haute Nature and House of Design. She is definitely a true original