Fruit inspired fashion and fruit inspired art are two things we’re big fans of here at the EatAChiquita.com blog. You can imagine our excitement when we found a fruit inspired artist, Cathy Wu, who’s merged art and fashion by creating beautiful jewelry from real dried fruits.
We talked to Cathy about her work and want to share her explanations and perspective as an artist using such a unique medium to explore issues like time, memory, and value. We even got some tips on how you can try your hand at making your very own dried fruit jewelry!
How did you get started working with dried fruit as an artist?
I began working with dried fruit because of [a] simple reason: I liked to eat dried fruit. And that was enough motivation for me to work with the material. It was great because rather than forcing myself to work with "normal" materials, I found a way to merge an interest outside of the classroom with what I was doing in school. (More specifically, I really liked to eat dry kiwis. But I could not find it anywhere and nobody would believe or understand how good it tasted. So the next best thing was to buy a dehydrator. The next thing you know, I started drying everything in sight....)
You wrote that your pieces are meant to “push the issues of time and memory.” How do those two concepts play into your art?
I've always been obsessed with time. It constantly moves forward, but we like to try and stop it's effects as much as we can. Some examples are anti-aging lotions, acid-free paper that promises to never yellow, or bulky protection cases for cell phones. I would rather let time just do it's thing. If it rusts, changes colors, breaks down - to me, that process itself is beautiful. Plus, it allows you to "read" an object. You can look at those signs and make guesses about what that object has been through. As the ring ages with time, it lets the wearer know that it's okay that it's changing. It isn't frozen and always young. I like the idea of the ring changing with the wearer - they age together as the ring is worn.
What’s your favorite piece so far?
My favorite would be the kiwi ring because it really started it all for me.
A lot of our readers are probably wondering how they can experiment making their very own dried fruit jewelry, do you have any tips for them?
My tip: get a mandolin! Best tool for slicing unless you have a good knife and steady hands. I've yet to find a "perfect" fixative that doesn't modify the look of the raw fruit. The pieces are still intact. The colors have definitely gone, and they've actually been re-hydrated thanks to the humid Texas climate. And pay attention to the water contents of fruit. Drying an avocado or banana resulted in extremely crispy pieces that could not [be] manipulated afterwards because they'd just snap. Watermelon, grapefruit, and blackberries? Good luck just trying to remove them from the dehydrator. But don't let that hold you back! Just play, and if you really want it, you'll figure out a way to make it work.
So there you have it! Experiment with different fruit, shapes and fixatives and most importantly, don’t give up. With a little patience and trial and error, you may soon be the next fruit fashionista!
Special thanks to Cathy Wu for her wonderful answers and images. She is, in her words “currently obsessed with canning fruit,” so we hope to see and hear more from this fruit inspired artist in the months to come. You can read more on her work with dehydrated fruit and other projects here.