Let there be light, and let that light emanate from chocolate, mushrooms and wine boxes. I may be misremembering that Biblical quote, but it’s a whole new world �"- for lamps, at least.
These are eleven of the strangest lamps we’ve ever seen. Some have odd power sources, such as soil, gravity and even human blood (made for Twilight fans, I guess). Others forsake the traditional wood and glass for fungi and candy. One walks around, as lamps are certainly notwont to do.
Soil Lamp
How’s this for a confusing circle: Plants use light to grow from soil, but now we can use soil to grow light. The chemical reaction of copper, zinc and the biological life in soil creates the energy that gives you the light by which to read John le Carré’s The Constant Gardener.
Speaking of books, this lamp is made for the book reader’s bedside table. It’s shaped suspiciously like a house in a preschooler’s drawing: A square with a perfect triangle on top, which becomes a bookrest, ensuring you never lose your spot when you hit the hay.
What’s more plentiful than soil? Gravity! This lamp doesn’t have batteries, just a bag hanging on string. Fill the bag with dirt or rocks, and lift it up. It slowly descends, winding the internal gears of GravityLight, which results in enough energy to light the room for about 25 minutes. It was created for developing countries in which electricity is a precious commodity, but it wouldn’t be out of place in an engineering major’s dorm room.
Cavallum (La Caja De Vino Que Se Convierete En Lampara i.e. The Wine Lamp)
“Lit up” is an old expression describing someone’s who's drunk. It’s pretty fitting with this lamp. Just buy the wine. Take wine out of box. Drink wine while converting the wine box into a lamp, which is built-in. Toast to your new nifty lamp. Repeat, and you won’t be the only thing that’s “lit up.”
If this lamp looks like a pitcher, that’s because it is. Sort of. Only instead of storing that water for your hydration pleasure, it turns it into light. When you fill it with water, that H2O reacts with a carbon stick covered in magnesium powder that’s inside the lamp, which creates light. Walter Whitehad to have something to do with this one �" probably a Gray Matter Technologies creation.
Bored with the crazy lamps you’ve seen so far? Fine, then. Create your own with Thomas Hick’s origami-inspired lamp. It’s created from a pre-scored sheet of stainless steel, which you fold into whatever shape your heart desires. Just make sure you leave room for the light to shine through.
You may not speak French, but I’m sure you’ve figured out this is an incredibly impractical lamp made from chocolate. Like, the kind you eat. Created by Swedish artist Alexander Lervik, this lamp had the lifespan of a dayfly. But like a supernova, it remained dazzling (and delicious) for its existence in a Stockholm art museum. Light burst through the dark chocolate, imitating dawn. Check out the video here.
Mushrooms have a few different implications, some of a wink-wink nudge-nudge variety and some of an Italian-cooking variety. Now, they might refer to light. Mush-Lume’s lampshade, created by Danielle Trofe, is grown by taking agricultural byproducts �" think corn stalks and such �" then covering them in mushroom mycelium, which acts as a binding agent as it grows. It’s then heated and dried, ensuring that mushrooms won’t take over your living room. If you grow bored of it, just throw it away as it’ll biodegrade.
Dalia Derrick is a 27-year old freelance graphic designer currently living in Kansas. She sometimes blogs about current events, education and real-estate. Proud dog owner. more..
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