Polished Performer

CARNEGIE MUSEUM OF ART

SITTING PRETTY: Newson's sexy Lockheed Lounge

Instead of throwing that aluminum beer can in the bin, you might consider wearing it. Or so suggest the curators of "The Adventures of Aluminium, Jewellery to Jets," at London's Design Museum through Jan. 19, which polishes up the familiar stuff.

Today a symbol of our throwaway culture, aluminum was not so long ago a precious metal. When a French scientist first extracted tiny pieces of it in 1845, the earth's most abundant metal was as valuable as gold and used in jewelry and precious objects. But only 10 years later, a new chemical extraction process made aluminum...

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