Two British designers have made a pair of baby booties from BREAST MILK.
Nick Gant and Tanya Dean, both lecturers at the University of Brighton in East Sussex, have transformed proteins in breast milk into a hard plastic-type material and then moulded it into the booties.
They were created using milk donated by a mother to promote World Breast Milk Donation Day this Sunday.
Nick said: "The aim is to highlight the importance of breast milk donation, and more broadly to challenge people's perceptions about so-called waste products.
"We want to show that they can be used to raise awareness and communicate issues about material culture, ethics and sustainability.
"Turning waste material like breast milk which couldn't otherwise be used, but which is embedded with meaning and personal history, into something new, gives the products created greater meaning and value."
In the past, breast milk has been used to make ice cream and even designer jewellery.
The partners worked with Gillian Weaver, manager of the milk bank at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in London, and chairwoman of the UK Association for Milk Banking's national forum.
The milk bank, run by Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, provides specially heat-treated breast milk collected from volunteer donor mothers for use in feeding sick and premature babies.
Gillian said: "Seeing these tiny booties made from breast milk is a unique reminder of the valuable role that breast milk plays in helping premature babies to survive and grow."