Made from trash

I have been busy this weekend doing the mad dash to get a class project over the line for presentation this morning. It went pretty well and I am quite happy with how it turned out.

The brief was to make a working light fixture from a found object or objects. I had already bought four wire bin baskets to turn into pendant lights which I found for $2 at a bargain warehouse hopefully to hang over a new kitchen bench in the coming months, but I hadn't thought too much about how I was going to do it. Then voila an opportunity.

In developing my concept it occurred to me that the wire is the perfect surface for stitching, knitting or crocheting. I remembered seeing these knitted Eames chair's by Akira Ishikawa that I absolutely love so I wanted to add to the lamp with some form of knitting or stitching.

As it turned out on one of my finding expeditions I came across a whole bag of neon coloured nylon crochet thread - you know the toilet dolly style. I had another project in mind for it, and still do I found so much, but it was perfect as my thread. Because I wanted four in total above a kitchen bench I decided to stitch in a message.

Here is my found object pendant Made From Trash the concept and the real thing.

My inspiration

The materials
The nylon thread, orange cord, as you know I'm mad about colour and it looks hot with the multi-coloured thread. I chose to use a much rounder bulb in the end because you can see right through the bin and the curves are lovely. I spray painted the bin grey, I love grey and orange together and the thread and message stand out more.

A rough sketch of the size of kitchen I fantasise about - oh and how the pendants might look in context. The message was going to read 'made' on one side and 'here' on the other as a little play on made in China or Taiwan but in making it I edited it down to 'made' as two words was going to be visually too much and it is much cleaner this way. I added some interlinked squares for more colour and interest.

Last but not least the light itself

I selected light fittings that I liked the look of as an almost sculptural piece then I had to work out how to make them work safely. In this I was greatly aided by my partner and especially my father in-law who wired it up for me.

The stitching is certainly not text book but a method I worked out with trial and error, printing off a font I settled on at the right size tracing it on in crayon and stitching over it. I must say I loved this bit.

I love the shadow play with the text and the wire. I will have to see if the kitchen ends up big enough to accommodate the whole thing - it might end up being 'om' to promote peace and harmony in the kitchen (ha ha) - we will see. Either way I am really happy with how it turned out.