As an alternative light fixture, Israeli designer Marina Rudinsky lights up a string of loose tea strainers.
Items found in the kitchen are often endowed with unusual shapes and holes, and many a designer have found ways to convert kitchen tools into light fixtures. Pasta strainers are an obvious choice, but small, delicate loose tea strainers pose a good option too and Israeli designer Marina Rudinsky has assembled them in a luminous fashion. (Tea paraphernalia has been upcycled in other ways as well, with tea wrappers being masterfully crafted into origami pieces.)
Filled with small white Christmas lights and strung together in a cluster, the tea strainers are then hung from a small free-standing stand.
The lamp almost looks like a dangly pearl earring, or as though all the tea strainers are seeping in one glowing, communal mug.
If the lights used to fill the strainers were energy efficient LED lights, Rudinsky’s tea strainer lamp would make an even eco-friendlier gift.
Marina Rudinsky is a designer and art director, who describes herself as loving strong colors, happy people and big animals.
Read more about other eco-friendly light fixtures:
Lightexture Lamps Combine Ethereal Light and Energy Efficiency
Lamps Made with 50% Sawdust, Some Plastic Bags, and Some Ingenuity
Hasadna Design Workshop Does Upcycled Chandeliers With an Ice Cream Party
Author: Karen Chernick
Much to the disappointment of her Moroccan grandmother, Karen became a vegetarian at the age of seven because of a heartfelt respect for other forms of life. She also began her journey to understand her surroundings and her impact on the environment. She even starting an elementary school Ecology Club and an environmental newsletter in the 3rd grade. (The proceeds of the newsletter went to non-profit environmental organizations, of course.) She now studies in New York. Karen can be reached at karen (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
Never in my life would I have thought tea strainers could make something so beautiful. I feel inspired thinking about sitting by this lamp and drinking my cup of tea. How peaceful.