Eggshells aren’t just good as fertilizers. They also make sustainable materials for arts and crafts, and some even make painted artwork using clean, dry eggshells. Melbourne-based designer Joanne Odisho ground them into fine powder and transformed them into a modular lighting fixture, called the Mod-u Lamp.
She collects discarded eggshells from cafes, then she sterilizes, dries, and grounds them into a fine powder using a Nutribullet. She then mixes the powdered shell with a biodegradable biopolymer to create a wet, sand-like composite. Odisho then pours the mixture into molds and leaves them to dry naturally for about a week.
Once dried and cured, the composite forms into a sturdy, rock-like material while still retaining the natural hues of the eggshells. The material eventually makes up Mod-u, a collection of modular lighting pieces made from dozens of individual eggshell composites. They look like Lego blocks, reconfigurable to suit different lighting needs.
The blocks, which also use plywood and Unryu paper-coated PLA, can be stacked, rotated, and rearranged, shifting between a table lamp and a stand lamp, or formed into a sculptural piece. They come in three sizes: small (300L x 300W x 290H), medium (300L x 300W x 840H), and large (300L x 300W x 1290H). The lamp emits a warm, ambient glow perfect for relaxing or setting the mood.
The Mod-u lamp takes its name from the combination of “modular” (mod) and “you” (u). It represents its modular design configurable by you. More than a light source, its design invites interactive play, one that awakens childhood memories of stacking and rearranging blocks without rules.
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Images courtesy of Joanne Odisho
