London, July 13 (IANS): The next best thing to create home goods and high-end designs is here: human hair.
So you have jewellery boxes, mirror frames and combs crafted by placing strands of hair in a silicon mold which is filled with a non-toxic resin derived from pine trees.
The result is sheets of plastic that look like exotic hardwoods that can be cut and assembled using traditional techniques.
"Hair is one natural resource that is actually increasing globally. We wanted to explore the possibility of using Chinese traditional crafts with a sustainable material," designers Alex Groves and Azusa Murakami were quoted as saying in a wired.com report.
The brainchild of London-based Studio Swine, the collection called "Hair Highway" is available for sale through Pearl Lam Galleries in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
Buying and selling human hair has become a billion-dollar business.
In the open market, blonde European hair is the most expensive product, with a quarter pound of golden locks fetching nearly $2,000 (Rs.1,18,000), the report added.