Jewellery designer Jaime MacDonald, who graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in July, has been shortlisted for Scotland’s first eco-prize for creativity for a series of seven brooches called ‘Lay of the Land’ created from black and white plastic film containers.

Jaime, from Strathpeffer, is interested in re-using materials and finding ways to give them a new life in a different context.  She feels the materials she uses have an empathy with the Scottish environment and only started working in plastic in her final year.  

She hopes to change the apathy towards re-cycling through design and says “I feel this could help to change behaviour and attitudes by example, showing that further beauty and usefulness can be brought out from these discarded objects, and that they should not be cast to the scrap heap for eternity.”

The new eco-prize celebrates creative, literary or artistic work in Scotland which promotes greener lifestyles, and is an initiative of the Eco Trust in association with environmental group, Friends of the Earth Scotland and The Lighthouse in Glasgow.

Kay Henning, founder and trustee of the Eco Trust said "We created this award to encourage and celebrate artists working with flair and inventiveness on important issues which touch the lives of many people in Scotland. We have been really impressed by the range and quality of the entries."

The other shortlisted finalists are Matthew Dalziel and Louise Scullion, Ruth Maxwell, Julie Bertagna, Martyn Gutteridge and Rowan Dewar.

The award was presented to Matthew Dalziel and Louise Scullion at a ceremony on 30 August 2005.