Art Blocks Presents Erick Calderon’s Project: Friendship Bracelets

After a successful NFT collection Chromie Squiggles, Art Blocks founder Erick Calderon is back with a new project—Friendship Bracelets. The free generative art project combines creative coding and embroidery to create a special token of friendship. Calderon, popularly known as Snowfro, collaborated with artist Alexis André (aka MacTuitui) to make the pieces.

Here’s all you need to know about Friendship Bracelets from Erick Calderon:

What are Erick Calderon’s Friendship Bracelets?

Friendship Bracelets is the latest generative art project from Erick Calderon, available free of cost for any Art Blocks NFT holders. Created in partnership with André, the pieces feature embroidery floss colours. In essence, the two artists collaborated to represent digital art in the form of a meaningful physical object using the strands of a childhood bracelet.

While Calderon conceptualised the project, André aesthetically and programmatically designed it. Notably, the pieces are Art Blocks’ way of appreciating the creators, makers, builders, and collectors who have been essential to the platform’s growth. 

“Participating in this project is a signal, both online and IRL, that you’re a participant in this evolution of art + community,” Art Blocks said in a statement. “You are pushing the best ideas forward. You are the reason all of these imaginative projects come to life. Our community is what makes all of this possible. So, to say it plainly, we appreciate you, and we hope that you’ll accept this bracelet as a token of our special friendship!”

How to mint Friendship Bracelets?

Anyone who holds an Art Blocks piece during the snapshot is eligible to claim two Friendship Bracelets from Erick Calderon. While the mint is free, users will have to pay the gas fees. The minting will go live on Thursday, October 27 at 3:30 PM ET. 

As is typical of Art Blocks generative pieces, each friendship bracelet is unique with different colours and moving shapes. Furthermore, minters will receive illustrated instructions to create a physical counterpart of their bracelet. In addition, those attending  Art Blocks’ Community Weekend in Marfa will get materials to create a special Marfa Sunset Pallete bracelet. 

Who is Erick Calderon?

An artist, collector, and entrepreneur, Erick Calderon is the founder of the generative art platform, Art Blocks. Although originally involved in the ceramic tile business, Snowfro had always been an art enthusiast, who eventually entered the NFT space as an investor in 2017. The following year, when he developed Art Blocks, little did he imagine the massive feats it would achieve. 

“I want to create this platform where people that are creating beautiful works of art can do it in a way that has provenance,” Calderon told NFT Evening in an interview early this year. “Because that hadn’t really existed in generative art.”

Thus, Snowfro launched Art Blocks with his generative art project, Chromie Squiggles. This was a 10K NFT collection featuring simple, kaleidoscopic squiggles in vibrant hues. Today, the collection has a floor of 12.8 ETH (at the time of writing). As a project coming long after Chromie Squiggles, Erick Calderon‘s Friendship Bracelets are likely to have a high demand. We can also likely expect to see some of the NFTs selling for high prices on secondary markets.