Michelle Brand’s Stunning Plastic Bottle Chandelier
by Antonia Halse
One of the most stunning pieces at this year’s 100% Design was this gorgeous recycled plastic bottle chandelier by Michelle Brand. Composed entirely from cut-off bottle bases, it lit up the floor at (re)design’s Lighten Up exhibition, which showcased a selection of innovative lighting designer-makers who are ’switched-on’ when it comes to tackling domestic lighting design solutions.
100% Design gets better every year, although sometimes the unavoidable trade show layout can be a bit wearing on the visitor. Michelle Brand’s piece welcomed all as the statement chandelier in the entryway, drawing desensitized design enthusiasts closer and closer. Upon further inspection the curvaceous star shaped modules looked strangely familiar.
Michelle Brand Cascade Lamps at HauteGreen 2007
We first discovered Michelle Brand back at Haute Green 2007 in New York City where she won the Inhabitat Editors’ Choice Award for her stunning eco lighting designs. Now appears that Michelle has expanded on her beautiful original design with eye-catching new variations for 100% Design.
Michelle Brand custom builds each chandelier from plastic bottle petal bases, linking their modules together with a simple tag. The original design was launched in 2007, and it seems that the Manchester based designer is developing the design to appeal to the retail & interiors market, although the idea of reutilizing something that has been perfectly designed for one purpose remains intact. Brand states: “Once a plastic drinks bottle is empty, it is perceived as redundant and then thrown away. I wanted to challenge this wasteful paradigm.”
Uprooted from their typical locations such as the trendy, but lovely, Old Truman Brewery complex, (re)design put on a sensational show with Lighten Up and have produced an exhibition catalogue that is available from their website
+ Michelle Brand at HauteGreen
HauteGreen Best in Show Awards >
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This looks really cool. Especially from a distance where you can’t really see what it’s made of and how it’s formed.
I don’t usually like designs made out of recycled garbage as they ALWAYS look so lame and you’d never dream of having something like it in your home, but this really is pretty.
As for many 60s born Brits, I can well imagine Valerie Singleton making one of these on Blue Peter! Especially approaching Christmas, though yours would never look as good as hers, of course!
I don’t know if I’d want one of these hanging in my dining room but I could see the attraction of them in public places such as shopping centres or modern art galleries and the like. I suppose they could be sold as self-assembly kits which would make them popular.
Plus, it would get the message out about recycling. People will see that ‘garbage’ isn’t always just garbage. It still has value, can still have a purpose. Valuable lessons for all of us today.
Steve N. Lee
author of eco-blog http://www.lionsledbysheep.com
and suspense thriller ‘What if…?’