PHOTOS Shavan Rahim WORDS Malibongwe Tyilo
Stop press! VISI has found the sweet spot where design meets chocolate in the studio of Heather Thompson, but don’t just take our word for it, try it yourself at the MINE designer market at The Woodstock Foundry starting at 6pm today. We caught up with her to chat about sugar, creativity and these choctastic rings.
Why chocolate?
When I was diagnosed with melanoma, I freaked out, cut out all sugar and preservatives, then realised I was cutting out the best things life has to offer – chocolate. So, I decided to make my own.
Is all your chocolate sugar-free?
The chocolate nut butters are sugar- and dairy-free, and insanely yummy. The chocolate has a high cocoa content (71%), is virtually sugar-free, and completely dairy-free. Sugar has a time and place, but in our Westernised diets it is in everything and doesn’t need to be.
Do you think of yourself as a chocolatier or a designer whose medium is chocolate?
Being self-taught, I don’t think I am even allowed to call myself a chocolatier, which I’m fine with. I have worked in a few different creative mediums, and experimenting with chocolate definitely feels like an extension of that, so the latter seems to sit better.
How did the rings come about?
I had seen an image of microscopic moondust particles that were so beautiful, I wanted to eat them! So I borrowed an angle grinder and created the shape from a hexagonal brass rod, which was then cast in silicone to make a chocolate mould. The chocolate picked up all the lovely markings in the brass, making it gem-like and lending itself to jewellery. I collaborated with Erika Wessels to make a brass ring that, once the chocolate was eaten off, could stand alone as something beautiful and keep the experience going.
• R200 per ring, somaconfection.co.za
