Green Design Girl

Michelle Brand: Flower Power Chic

I first heard about eco product designer Michelle Brand last year, when she showcased her work at hauteGREEN in New York and the green blogosphere was buzzing about her beautiful and clever designs. No doubt there will be a resurgence of interest in Brand now, as her dramatically sweeping Cascade chandelier has a full page feature in the current issue of Interior Design Magazine [pg. 110, for you fellow print mag enthusiasts].

So what makes her creations so green and so clever? Well, have a good look at the photos that I’ve posted and see if you can guess what those dainty little flowers are made of. Glass? Nope. Painted ceramic? Guess again. Resin? Negative.

What you’re seeing are the bottoms of recycled plastic soda bottles. Genius, right? It’s almost too good to be true. I should know, as I’m constantly scouring the design universe, looking for truly successful reincarnations of just about any tossed out material on the planet — and I’ve seen a lot of clunky and hideous transformations [but hey, eco points for trying, that’s a given]. So to see something so elegant and sophisticated made from ordinary used soda bottles, just blows my mind.

The talented Manchester-based Brand begins by collecting and disinfecting the discarded bottles, followed by the removal of the bottoms using a machine. Then she hand trims each one using a surgical scalpel. This ensures that there are no rough edges left on the petals of the newly formed plastic flowers. She then takes the shapes and strings them together using “transparent price-tagging connectors”, giving her creations a very light and ethereal look.

Brand’s bottle decor goes beyond lighting to include hanging room dividers, wall treatments, curtains and more. In the U.K. they are available at The Greenhaus and at the Lisa Fontanarosa Collection in the U.S. Of course, if you’re lucky enough to own Brand’s Cascade, Green Design Girl would encourage you to outfit it with an energy-efficient CFL, upping the green status even further on this masterpiece of recycled chic.

The sweeping Cascade in broad daylight.

An illuminated view of Cascade.

Cascading drama.

Brand’s Flowerfall used as a window treatment.

A view of the price-tagging connectors that are cleverly used to string the shapes together.

[Top Photos: Blossom hand painted in green + blue; illuminated using LED’s]