Saki The Artist

28/01/2026

was so much fun! It was a bit of a scramble to finish my dress on time due to being sick with the flu most of January, but I managed in the end.

I made this year’s ball gown out of 1.7 kg of upcycled lab plastic donated by and . Specifically, I used mingled HDPE and PP that had been heat sterilized (autoclaved). The reason I chose this material is to illustrate the importance of sorting plastics before autoclaving: once the different types of plastics melt and merge, they can no longer be separated for recycling.

It was a challenge to make a garment that conveys this message while looking elegant. More on that in future posts!

I unfortunately took very few photos this year because I promised myself to spend more time dancing and less time on my phone. (I'm forcing myself to post these pictures now or else they'll sit on my phone for two months and eventually be forgotten.)

13/01/2026

Polyball at ETH Zurich. I was invited to exhibit the chandelier I built for them in November as well as my glove dress from 2024.

Posting this almost two months after the event, but better late than never! I have been mostly staying off social media these days as I've been working nonstop on a couple of projects due by the end of January.

I was originally going to write captions for each photo but now Instagram has a feature where you can add text directly to the photo like it's a story post. Taking full advantage.

Alas, there were no videos of me dancing, but they had such an amazing swing band that played until 4 a.m. and I danced until my feet felt like they would fall off.

Ten out of ten, would definitely go again.

Thank you .sustainability and for donating the used pipettes for my dress and to and for hosting me!

07/12/2025

"Chandelier of Transformation"
I was invited by the Sustainability Group at to create a new chandelier for them made from upcycled lab plastics collected by scientists at ETH. The original design that I submitted was a copy of the one I built for .sustainability, but when I arrived to Zurich, they didn't have some of the items required. As it turned out, the scientists were using almost no plastic reagent bottles—most were getting reagents in reusable glass bottles from their own Media Kitchen!

So I modified the design to instead use 50 mL centrifuge tubes to house the lights. The rings of pipettes were expanded to accommodate a cascade of these tubes down the center of the chandelier. I really like the final outcome! Upcycling is really similar to cooking with seasonal produce: not only is it great for the environment, it also forces one to be spontaneously creative with the resources on hand.

The chandelier assembly was done as a live performance in the foyer of ETH as a way to gain visibility and interest in their sustainability campaign.

Photo credits:
1: Simon Muntwiler
2, 3, & 4: ETH Zurich/Alessandro Della Bella

23/11/2025

I'm taking a ten day break from costuming to build a chandelier for . They are running a fantastic sustainability campaign there called The Art of Transformation, and I have the great honor of representing them on the art side. I'll be constructing a very similar chandelier to the one in this photo, and it will be done as a live art performance in the foyer of the main building. The pipettes will be collected by scientists at ETH, and the completed piece will remain on campus as part of their permanent art collection. I'm so stoked for this huge opportunity to spread the word for the need for more sustainable research! More posts of cool art coming soon!

01/10/2025

Tomorrow I'll be giving a 15 minute talk at the Science Art Summit. It's a little different from my usual spiel about sustainable research, and more focused on why we need more art in the the science world.

Registration is free! Just go to scienceartsummit.com and you'll get the link to the virtual conference.

24/06/2025

I need to brag about my Nature paper publication. I finally got into a top tier journal!

Like everyone else, scientists often know how to work in a more sustainable way — but choose not to. How can art help bridge the gap between knowledge and motivation?

21/06/2025

Sometimes I'm a photographer. Not really, but kinda.

26/05/2025

As I was looking up how much of an exhibition fee I should be asking for for my art, I came across this interesting article. It's eye-opening for both artists and consumers of art.

Several years ago, I was an "emerging artist," so I often loaned out my art for free because the press coverage and exposure were worth it to me. Now that I'm a more established artist, I feel more confident about asking for money, but the funny thing is that the art I create now is not necessarily superior to art I created back then—I should've asked for proper compensation even as a newbie.

If you're a budding artist out there, don't let anyone take advantage of your lack of experience. There aren't labor laws that demand proper pay on our behalf, so we need to valuate our own work and communicate its worth to exhibitors.

Compensating participants for group exhibitions is an important but taboo subject, as is the fee amount institutions provide

15/05/2025

- Science Edition! This sculpture was made with about 10 kg of plastic lab waste as part of an interactive art experience for attendees of the 2025 EMBL Symposium for Sustainable Research: Fit for the Future. Scientists were invited to estimate their weekly consumption of single-use lab plastics and add it to the pile.

The original design is by the amazing artivist who made this open source faucet template and tutorial in collaboration with for and for the .

05/05/2025

Trash to treasure: a jewelry workshop for upcycling single-use lab supplies into wearable art.

Last week at the symposium for sustainable research at EMBL I had the pleasure of hosting a crafting session for scientists to make their own earrings and necklaces. In addition to common disposable labware like microfuge tubes, some scientists brought some more exotic items such as the gold and silver wafers used for electron microscopy (shown in the first photo inside a petri dish pendant).

Thanks for coming to the workshop, everyone! 💚

06/04/2025

The jaguar illustration was a commissioned graduation gift for my friend who just got his PhD. I made it into a bolo tie! It's made from shrinkydink and resin.