The Birthmark Brooches consist of a series of reticulated brass metal and laser cut cork, mimicking skin like textures and color tones of the body. Birthmarks are spots on my body that are very intimate and personal to me, especially those in my eyes and the ones I had to remove for medical reasons. This series intends to present these marks as beautiful wearable objects. Some people consider birthmarks as “imperfections”. My vision was to recreate and present birthmarks as wearable “perfect imperfection” objects, thus showing that beauty can be found in faultiness, deficiency and flaws. I wanted to make them visually appealing grouped together and on their own. The birthmarks that some might want to hide under their clothes are now brought forward and shown as brooches on their clothes. These wearables are all depicting differently shaped birthmarks, cut out of brass metal and heated up to the point of reticulation to emulate wrinkles on the skin. The cork on the other hand is present on three of the brooches as a part of the brooch’s back. The cork like texture and color tone is similar to tanned skin, which suited my concept well. I truly like how the technique of reticulation allowed the metal to melt away and generate holes. This results in a transparency on the brooches, which looks like a second layer of skin shining through the metal.