Who’d Have Thought is a blog about design innovation and creative reinvention where Jane and Will interview artists and designers with questions that focus on up-cycling in the creative arts.
Jane’s interview about the Hypertension Singing Bowl led me to think about 3D printing as a way to up-cycle waste metals. The organizers of the first e-Waste Academy described the “Age of Urban Mining” in which precious metals and rare earth minerals are mined from the growing deposits of electronic junk that contain 50 times the amount of gold and precious metals than ores mined from the ground.
Shapeways.com  recently announced the dawning of a “New Bronze Age” with the introduction of the capability to 3D print CAD designed objects in Bronze and Brass. Singing bowls and gongs were invented in the Bronze Age due to the malleability and musical properties of these metals.
What if discarded mobile phones could be up-cycled as singing bowls through urban mining in the new bronze age?