Sofie Boons finds inspiration in materials, science and the world of scents, perfumes and smells. In her alchemical practice she strives to find the means to make invisible substances visible such as her creation of a recipe book on how to make wearable solid perfumes.
Her latest project began during a Masters in GSMJ at the RCA where she collaborated with Imperial College PhD student Jodie Melbourne leading to the research of metals on a nanoscale. Used widely in the medical world gold nanoparticles can be manufactured through the reduction of chloroauric acid creating gold atoms which group together. Excited by the plasmonic property of the particles which created bright colours and intriguing effects when coming into contact with certain light sources the two women developed a new material combining resin and nanogold and silver particles. Later research revealed that when the material moved from one light source to another it changed colour. Called NAuNO and NAgNO the project has been shown in Paris and New Designers in London where Sofie was picked by Harriet Vine as one of the Design Council’s Ones to Watch. She also won the RCA’s Theo Fennell Overall Excellence Award in 2013.
If she were to win the fellowship Sofie would like to develop a collection of contemporary jewellery which highlights the ability of the material to display multiple colours when viewed in different lights. As it involves resin, the ability to cast any shape for which a mould can be produced allows a great deal of flexibility in her future work.