Tanel confirms that this has been one of the most interesting challenges in his creative path, giving him the opportunity to create something glam and stylish from something worthless, such as a discarded scooter: “It all started with an old BOLT scooter, which Kerttu (BOLT’s marketing manager) brought me to the studio with bright eyes. I started it in my mind to divide it into parts to identify something jewellery-like. In the end, the cross-section of the steering wheel, an interestingly shaped module, which soon became earrings, pendants and bracelets, seemed to offer the most possibilities to me.”
The process was layered - first of all, the consumer item had to be made into a material again, i.e. free from the green colour and harmonize the surface finish. Next, large machines came into play, with which our assistant Hannes started slicing the aluminum body. Then again cleaning, sanding corners, drilling holes...
Getting to the finished jewellery has been a tortuous and unpredictable journey into aluminum and the soul of the scooter.
Kerttu Keermaa, Bolt’s creative director, about the project: “The Hardwear collection is built on the same guiding principles as Bolt’s scooters: sustainability and safety. The remanufacturing process follows a zero-waste approach, with all remaining material going through our standard recycling process. We believe that road safety is a shared responsibility and that wearing reflective gear makes pedestrians and cyclists more visible in the dark.
Although we also made a series of cosmic dust and reflective jewellery for BOLT, we ended up allowing 13 anodized pieces into our product line.
There is something urban and cool in the cold shine of aluminum. We also decided to keep the surface treatment honest, the saw mark of slicing speaks about the laborious journey to jewellery.
The creative crown of the series is three masks covered with reflective paint and assembled from many modules.
The series was captured by the Estonian artist Johann Kööp, who now lives in London. Extra thanks to the models as well, because the photo and video shoots in the nighttime and increasingly cooling city lasted until the morning hours.
“I am extremely grateful to BOLT – It is hard to find such an open-minded, creative and professional partner… Instead of cutting my wings and worrying about the target audience (as in any usual commercial project), I was encouraged to dive into the topic with maximum freedom from routine. And my second deep bow goes to Erich, the young man from Vemo-PK OÜ, who anodized this series. Since the recycled parts are mostly not so standard and clean, it was hard to mess with them :)”
