Inspirations

We were inspired by an experimental swatch we created over the summer. The bioplastic was colored with spirulina powder and it looked so beautiful when light passed through it. We thought it could be a promising material to make a lamp shade.

Materials

• Two dried sheets of Green Ocean agar agar bioplastic
• Armature wire
• Long nose pliers and wire cutters
• Sewing needle and thread
• Lightbulb socket and lightbulb

Process

Create a frame for the shape of your lamp using the wire and pliers. Here’s the shape we came up with:

Sew the agar sheet around the wire frame.

With the lamp shade fully assembled it can be placed on the lightbulb socket! Ta da!

Final Product

End of show

This is what our lampshade looked like after being on display for four months. The bioplastic became softer and the lampshade collapse onto itself. There are some small mold spots forming and the green color from the spirulina has faded.

Lessons Learned

When we started building this lamp, we had all kinds of ideas of what we wanted it to look like. We didn’t anticipate the bioplastic sheets to be so wavy after drying so even though we had a plan for making we worked with the shape of the material to create the final lamp shade. This can be a unique way of making dictated by the sometimes unpredictable nature of the biomaterial.

Also, by having this item on display for the *This is Not A Drill* exhibition, we were able to gather very valuable information on how the material changed over a long period of time.