My friend Andy Schulman is a bit of a lighting genius. Each one of his creations looks like he was channeling the famous Nicola Tesla while wiring them up. Andy, a fellow Boulderite originally from Pennsylvania can illuminate any object, transforming them into delightful franken-chandeliers. If you can believe this isn’t even his day job!….he is also a crafted motion graphics geek in the ad world. Gotta love the talent!

In his own words, “Call it industrial. Duchampian. Utilitarian. Whimsical. Whatever you want to call the work of Andy Schulman of Afterglow Studio, the one undeniable adjective is, “Illuminated.”

At their most elemental, Andy’s pieces are functional lights; at their most metaphorical are testaments to bygone eras. The marvelous sculptures that come out of Afterglow Studio resonate with an audience that appreciates upcycled materials and reveres the inherent nostalgia Andy offers, usually with a sidecar of humor.

Andy’s materials have been culled from years of crawling through old barns combing in markets and from dumpster diving. The shelves of his studio are lined with racks of yet reused car parts, shoe forms, antique kitchem utencils, glassware, instruments and unidentifiable mechanical ephemera.

To him, this collection of vintage cast offs are not obsolete items, but relics awaiting new lives as chandeliers and table lamps. He says, “I love and respect old things with history, character and that were built to last. They may be useless or dirty, but they shouldn’t go in the garbage…I want to tell a new story with them.”

His small-scale and large-scale projects have infiltrated the design world as interest in recycled materials continues to grow.”

The Rhode Island designer/craftsman, Jamison Sellers salvages old wooden pallets, turning them into furniture and shelving that are modern and textural. The many colored scrap wood gives a modern take to recycling. Materials he incorporates into each piece would otherwise be destined for the fireplace or landfill.

Sellers is mindful of environmental responsibility and additionally uses only natural finishes, free of VOCs and solvents.

 Very cool adaptive reuse project in Brooklyn of an old water tower by Messana O’Rourke Architects.

Photos NYDaily News

German designer Michael Wolke  creates this amazing line of recycled pendant lighting. His Beute Lamp is hand-made from discarded cardboard

Available in two sizes; the small (40 cm by 30 cm) and large (60 cm by 30 cm).

Hometta offers custom, architect designed houses in premade form. Their site is a place to buy blueprints for progressive and sustainable modern houses under 2500 sf. Hometta was founded by an international group of architects and designers determined to improve the residential landscape, one house at a time.

The most amazing led mushroom lights by Great Mushrooming made of glass, LED lights and found wood.

The Way We See The World has created a line of edible cups that add life to parties and events and serve as a more sustainable alternative to disposable cups. The cups are flavored to complement the drink being served, can be nibbled on while drinking, and any leftover remnants can be composted. This project explored new and unexpected uses for agar seaweed type gelatin.

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Swede Maria Westerberg has an Architecture and Furniture Design studio in Stockholm. She creates individual pieces incorporating recycled elements as well as specially commissioned projects. At the Stockholm Furniture fair  2011, her T-shirt chair received first price in the Green Furniture award.

With post industrial waste from a factory that produces parts for tractors and Nascar, Bevara Designs transforms these recycled materials, creating unique benches, and tables with negative space patterns.

This tiny visitors hut at Toronto’s Evergreen Brick Works yard caught my eye.

The welcome hut reuses 1/2 a shipping container to provide visitors with information about the urban reclamation project Brick Works by Levitt Goodman Architects.

In the 1960s and 70s, the company produced more than 43 million bricks each year. But after business slowed in the 1980s, the yard closed and the 12-acre site fell into shambles. Renamed Evergreen Brick Works, the site is designed to be a community, environmental space where sustainable businesses can establish themselves and grow; artists can work; and locals can come to explore the site, take a walk, ice skate, buy local produce at the farmers’ market, and meander around the 16 buildings being rehabilitated.