A Chandelier Made of 1,243 Bulbs

What do you do with all the incandescent bulbs in the world that are being replaced by greener alternatives? Give them to Tim Fishlock. He'll create a stunning chandelier out of them.

Tim's creation, entitled "What Watt?", is an edition of 10 beautifully intricate chandeliers created from old incandescent bulbs (1,243 in each one). When I first saw this chandelier, it reminded me of something that Stuart Haygarth did a few years ago with found items that washed up along the shore.

Whenever I see these creations, I always want to ask the designer what inspired their design. This time I got a chance to do just that!

Tim is a designer and artist based in London. He began his career fabricating the designs of Thomas Heatherwick and has since gone on to produce artworks and print design for clients like Paul Smith, Electronic Arts and Habitat.

This particular chandelier was privately commissioned. The intention was to celebrate the design and invention that "remained pretty much unchanged for over 100 years," he says. "Of course, it's only right that greener alternatives supersede the old, energy-inefficient light bulb designs but most of them don't look as nice."

When Tim started his materials search, he realized that discontinued bulbs with poor energy ratings that could no longer be sold in the EU would be better off in his creation. (These bulbs won't even exist in 2011.) So Tim snapped up as many as he could find by contacting suppliers and buying up everything he could.

I mentioned the found objects chandelier from Stuart Haygarth and asked Tim what he thought about artists using found objects to create art -- Is this a new trend? "Artists and designers have always used what's around them," he says. "David Mach was using humble objects in his work long before doing so meant that there was an 'environmental' agenda to your work. I guess as time goes on there are more and more found materials to make stuff out of. I also think the growth of the internet has provided such a huge platform for art and design and there are simply more people creating things and getting them out into the world."

You might be wondering what the light source is that's hanging in the middle of this light bulb chandelier? Well, it's an LED bulb that can last for up to 25 years. "Surrounding such an energy efficient object with its less-than-green predecessors makes a pretty explicit point about how we're all moving forward -- whether some people like it or not -- with a conscience for environmental issues," says Tim.