PETpla.net Insider 12 / 2011

PET - THE NEXT GENERATION 28 PET planet insider Vol. 12 No. 12/11 www.petpla.net PET bottle bottoms into impressive chandeliers A light comes shining For more than ten years Cornelia Pitschi has been exploring the realm of recycling design. The take up and incorporation of recycling and recyclable materials is an important guiding principle of her design process. The fascination for materials ranges from electronic waste found on wheel covers to PET bottles. PET bottle material, with its glass-like character, especially the moulded base, inspired her to develop one of her favourite subjects - light objects. Apart from the light object “Pulpo”, which consists of PET bottle necks, the artist mainly works with PET bottle bottoms which are converted into different sized balls using a self- developed plug-in system. As one of her first creations (2005) she devel- oped the “Petobjektvase”, followed by the ball of light objects “Medusa1, 2 & 3”. Still some way from comple- tion is an impressive chandelier, made up of 150 PET bottle bottoms in an impressive array of shapes! In order to get the raw material, discarded PET bottles bottoms, she cooperates with the social institution “Marktlücke” in Zurich. The institution collects the PET bottles from its canteen and pre- pares them as semi-finished products for the artist. For light objects which are made of new PET bottles, the material is sent to the social institu- tion “Werkstätte Drahtzug“. There, the PET bottle bottoms are processed into semi-finished products which are then transformed into fascinating objects in her art studio in Zurich. For her new project Cornelia Pitschi is proposing a new campaign “Recycling - get involved” on her website. Here participants, who are interested in a Josefine PET-Object, can actively take part by collecting and sending the pre-processed bottle bottoms to Josefine, in the process saving a useful 30% off the standard sales price. www.josefine .ch The “Petobjektvase” is one of the first PET creations by Swiss artist Cornelia Pitschi The PET chandelier “Medusa” is made up of 150 PEt botle bottoms