Marie Chrisine Pavone is a French artist who hand makes beautiful brooches from Galalith. Galalith is one of the oldest plastic materials and was first discovered in 1897 when two German researchers came up with the idea of solidifying milk casein by addition of a small amount of formaldehyde. After 1900, it was used to manufacture fantasy buttons, toilet accessories, boxes, pens and other accessories Casein's pure white and extremely fine grain makes galalith an unbeatable material for dyeing in fine colors with a bright final polish. The inclusion of diverse additives produces various effects including stripes and swirls. Making Pavone brooches is a somewhat complex process to carve the required shapes : - after preliminary sanding of the raw material, each piece is hand cut (galalith cannot be moulded, and therefore is not a "plastic" material in the proper sense), Once carved the pieces must be polished and when ready, decorated with lacquer work, and hand painted by the artist. Each Marie Christine Pavone brooch is an individual work of art and no two pieces are exactly the same. Each piece takes up to three weeks to make and each is signed. You are purchasing a work of art when you purchase a Pavone brooch. The photos in the listings are of the actual brooch your are purchasing