Plastic Bottle Chandelier Proves Trash Can Be Beautiful

We’ve seen a lot of trash recycled into things like furniture, décor and jewelry, but it’s often more of a novelty than something people would actually use.  However, designer Michelle Brand has created something simple, innovative and beautiful that one can easily imagine seeing in homes and businesses: a chandelier made entirely from cut-off 2-liter bottle bases.  The plastic bases resemble flowers, and strung from a metal hoop with fishing wire, they make a surprisingly lovely chandelier.

From Inhabitat:

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.”

Inhabitat spied the chandeliers at (re)design’s Lighten Up exhibition at this year’s 100% Design event.  The exhibition “showcased a selection of innovative lighting designer-makers who are ’switched-on’ when it comes to tackling domestic lighting design solutions.”

Link [Inhabitat] + [100% Design]

Electric Feedback: Use Too Much Energy and This Light Switch May Shock You

Oh, how I wish this were true. From Gizmodo:

The Consumption Feedback Switch is a device that monitors your electricity usage. If it feels you’re within your light quota when you flip on the lights, you’ll see a small, harmless spark. But if you’ve been one of those dolphin-unsafe villains from Captain Planet, reading a few minutes too long at night, a gigantic stream of deadly electricity will mend your ways pending you not die.

Alright, we’re actually not sure that you feel a shock at all since the word “spark” may have been the choice of a liberal Google translation denoting “small glow.”

Damn, I would LOVE to do a product review on a light switch that actually gave you a shock if you were using too much energy. Eco-evil. I with there was an Etsy Alchemy for green tech products.

Link [Consumption Feedback Switch] via [Gizmodo] via [dvice]