Hearing & Seeing

Jewellery artist Alister Yiap’s latest creation celebrates the hearing aid, redressing it into a red-carpet worthy accessory, studded with the world’s finest jewels including Western Australian gold, diamonds and pearls.

“Hearing aids are something that people ought to be proud to wear, because hearing is something that shouldn’t be hidden. People with hearing difficulties can wear these designs loud and proud!” Alister said.

Known for the artistry of his exhibition jewellery masterpieces, Designer Hearing challenged Alister with putting the functionality of the hearing aid and its wearability at the front then developing his signature artistry around this.

The design houses a fully-operational hearing aid device and is built to be visually spectacular, yet light enough in weight to be comfortable and feel balanced when worn on the ear. A cradle concept was developed to achieve this.

“Gold plating pieces as large as was designed was quite a challenge to find a workshop who would do it. Due to the size, I ended up learning how to gold plate them myself in my own studio,” Allister said.

“I love creating the unimaginable and the impossible, inspired by technology, materials and geometry. I aim to create design concepts which are considered and aesthetically pleasing. That are calculated and use the materials’ properties to aid the design.”

Allister Yiap’s Designer Hearing was developed in collaboration with Australian not-for-profit, Telethon Speech and Hearing.

The designs were awarded a Commendation Award for Product Design (Jewellery) at the 2018 Design Industry Association WA Annual Awards. This adds to his many awards including Winner of the Mercedes-Benz Western Australian Fashion Awards for Fine Details in 2010.

The hearing aids were auctioned at Telethon Speech and Hearing’s 2018 Artitude Ball.

Images courtesy Alister Yiap.