Paper Sketches and Primitive Plasticine Sculpting
The concept of the Melo Pet didn't start from a cold 3D render or rigid industrial geometries. It was born, rather, from a nostalgic obsession with 90s egg-shaped keychains, fused with the memory of the delicate webbed rinds of cantaloupe melons bought at the Aveiro fish and vegetable market on a Tuesday morning.
At my desk, bathed in warm lamplight with a lo-fi chiptune soundtrack in the background, I began shaping a block of vanilla-colored polymer clay. The goal: finding an organic curve that nestled perfectly into the palm of a closed hand.
“"I wanted each Melo Pet to feel like a tiny living organism asleep inside a fruit picked in an Aveiro orchard — somewhere between a botanical reliquary and a pocket cybernetic companion."
