Recycled materials turned into a work of art – Lula Dot

Have you ever though that a book could light up your room, and only your mind? Lucy Norman got the idea of creating a chandelier made completely out of books. But this is not her only invention. Lucy loves recycling and tries to create sustainable lights, furniture and jewellery from used materials. Many of her projects have dealt with the problem of waste. She has tackled this by reusing waste to create beautiful objects. This is how Lula Dot, Lucy’s company, was born. Lucy also works as freelance designer in London.
 
But who is Lucy Norman?

Lucy's designs explore the science and mechanics of the world. Her recent work has a focus on light and objects that explore its health benefits and beauty. Many of Lucy's projects centre on health, human awareness, and sustainability. Her company Lula Dot, started in 2009, is based in Hackney, London.

As I learnd from most of my interviews, passion for art of any kind runs usualy in the family. It’s Lucy’s case, too. Her mother is a photographer and her grandfather was an engineer. Lucy went futher and  graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2013 in Design Products MA. Her work was nominated for the Helen Hamlyn prize, the Eddie Mundy Brilliant Award and an NEWH Scholarship. In 2007 she graduated from the University of Brighton with a 1st Class Honours degree in Product Design BSc, winning the Engineering prize for best overall performance.

Lucy is also a genuine artist, not only by taking the best schools in the field, but also by the fact that she ofter dreams her ideas and she gets inspired by the world around her.

What does it take to make one product?

It's very diddicult creating new projects as I seem always to be held bac
by money.It takes a lot of ionvestment to create new 3Dimensional things. It costs to experiment . its always a big investment and a gamble.

Every project is different. It depends how the idea starts but there is a lot of experimentation, with processes, materials, finishes, shapes. etc

Please tell me the story behind the light reading chandelier. How did you come up with the idea?

 More books are printed every year, read and discarded. Even though many are taken to charity shops, they mostly go unsold and the charities have to pay for the books to be sent to landfill. For example 10,000 books a week from one charity will go to waste. There is currently no infrastructure set up to recycle the paper from books because the paper is low grade and the glue on the spine must be removed.

These wasted books are used to create an attractive chandelier. Every page is folded in half, producing a circular arrangement which hangs around a ceiling light.

With this project i started from the material. I did a lot of experimenting, playing and folding. The book ligt was actually just an off shoot from the main project which was book wall partitions:
http://www.luladot.com/shop/furniture/book_partition/

Is there a piece that attracts people more?

People love Light Reading the most but my new project Sunsill gets a lot of interest: http://www.luladot.com/shop/lighting/sun_sill/

What other projects do you have for the future?
 
I am also working on a new project with Lauren Davies (Designs of the year) www.heka-lab.com which we plan to show in Milan Salone in April. The Magpie Collection, is a series of beautifully crafted glass bottles and containers for storing homemade cosmetics. Gold-mirrored designs on the glass surfaces reflect the light on one side, and cast shadows on the other, creating beautiful overlapping patterns.The Magpie Collection is completed with an elegant set of handheld tools for use with the containers including a spoon, spatula, sieve, funnel and bottle brush.

Lucy has exhibited her work at Marsden Woo Gallery, 100% Design in London, [Re]Design in Newcastle and London, Ditchling Museum in East Sussex, Colette in Paris, the Geffery Museum in London and with the RCA in Milan. Her work is currently on show at the Science Museum in London, The Wat Tyler Country Park in Essex and the Museum of Design in Plastics in Bournemouth.