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Exquisite Light Boxes Made With Melted Gummy Bears Look Like Stained Glass

These colorful works by Spanish architects Marta Alonso Yebra and Imanol Caldern Elsegui will fool you. At first glance, they might look like stained glass, but they're actually melted gummy bears. The decorative wall hangings are called “light boxes,” and they delight us with their gorgeous hues and exquisite marbling. Plus, Yebra and Elsegui's handiwork has a faint fruity smell to it.

Yerba first developed the unusual technique as an art student. She wanted to work with glass, but it was too expensive, and melting plastic produced too many harmful effects. The inspiration for using gummy bears happened as she was snacking on some. Yerba told Wired, “I realized, wait: This is very beautiful, and it's similar to plastic, but we can eat it. I was sure if I melted it, it wouldn't be toxic.”

Each light box uses about two pounds of candy, or six standard bags of Haribo candy (her brand of choice). The bears are melted and form a gelatinous paint, and it's then swirled and applied on methacrylate sheets. After the compositions are cool, they return to a solid state and are suitable for hanging. Purchase your own gummy bear art through MAYICE, Yebra and Elsegui's design studio.

MAYICE website
via [Wired, FWx, and Laughing Squid]

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met, Manager of My Modern Met Store, and co-host of the My Modern Met Top Artist Podcast. As an illustrator and writer living in Seattle, she chronicles illustration, embroidery, and beyond through her blog Brown Paper Bag and Instagram @brwnpaperbag. She wrote a book about embroidery artist Sarah K. Benning titled 'Embroidered Life' that was published by Chronicle Books in 2019. Sara is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art. She earned her BFA in Illustration in 2008 and MFA in Illustration Practice in 2013.
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