My own brief foray into jewellery design came at around age 7, when a friend and I decided to make friendship bracelets to sell around our local village. Hours of work went into them and a few weeks later, we set up shop in the park (with our mums, obvs) and sold them for a very respectable £1 each, mostly to our mums’ group of friends. Talk about living the dream. I think we made enough money for several weeks’ worth of wine gums from the local post office, which seemed like a pretty good deal at the time!
Anyhow, you’re probably wondering why all of this is vaguely relevant to today’s post. The team over at Smart Energy GB (more about them below) have set me an interesting challenge and I need your help!
They’ve set me the task of designing a piece of jewellery from the inside parts of an old school analogue electricity meter. My design will end up being turned into something beautiful by a professional jeweller and you’ll be able to enter a competition in a few weeks’ time to win one of this (very) limited run of jewellery.
You can see all of the pieces I’ve got to work with in the photos above – things like clasps, chains or fixings can be added to help link it all together. At the moment I’m thinking a statement necklace might be the way to go, as I think some of the cogs and longer metal parts would make a really interesting design. But an industrial take on a charm bracelet might also work really well…
I’d love to hear your thoughts on which parts you’d use to create a piece of jewellery out of what I’ve been given. Leave me a comment or drop by on social (@talesofpaleface) to let me know what you think!
A bit of background around Smart Energy GB and Smart Meters
Behind this project is a serious message about the rollout of smart meters. Smart meters are new digital meters, replacing the old analogue meters most of us have in our homes. Every household in Great Britain will be offered a smart meter by their energy supplier by 2020, at no extra cost.
Smart meters are available to all homes. If you are a renter you can still get a smart meter. If your name is on the bill you can just contact your energy supplier. If your landlord pays the bill they will need to speak to the energy supplier.
What’s so good about smart meters?
• Having smart meters installed means an end to estimated bills and no more phoning in manual meter readings
• They show you in near real time, on a handy in-home display screen, how much energy you are using, in pounds and pence
• If you are a prepayment customer you will be able to top up your credit online, over the phone or as you do now by visiting your local shop
So while I have been given the chance to create some stunning pieces of jewellery from the inner workings of an old analogue meter, by 2020 we all be part of the smart meter revolution sweeping the country.
To upgrade to smart meters you should contact your energy supplier to find out when they will be able to fit them in your home.
So what do you think guys? What would you choose to make if you were set this challenge?
*collaboration post with Smart Energy GB
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