The story begins in 2011. In the summer of that year, the Spanish designer Álvaro Catalan de Ocon was invited to Colombia, to participate in a project focused on the reuse of PET plastic bottles. Helene Le Drogou psychologist, activist in the fight against the contamination of the Colombian Amazon by plastic waste, asked the designer an opinion regarding the possibility of producing products from the collected PET bottles. Thus, in 2012, PET lamp idea appeared, a project that converts waste plastic into unique handcrafted lamps.
This was possible by resorting to the local culture and tradition of the Colombian artisans to work with textiles. Due to its cultural richness and diversity, Colombia has proved to be the perfect place to develop the first phase of the project. Encouraged by the positive response of the public and received awards, PET lamp has continued to expand to other countries and cultures, since 2013.
PET Lamp Studio Society has appeared as an organized platform by the manifestation of creativity, craft tradition and local culture starting from the use of waste PETs. The lamps created by the studio in collaboration with the local artisans are the cultural expression of the area from which the craftsmen come. If in Colombia, they work especially with textile and wool, in Chile, the artisans use also vegetal materials for weaving lampshades. All the lampshades are handcrafted and unique as model, being woven for different models of lamps made by designers. Without forcing the styling, the top and neck of the bottle are left in plain sight with the intention of telling a story to the client about its origins. The used cables are coated with fabric, specially ordered in different and vivid colours with a fall and perfect texture. The initiators of the PET Lamp project aim to continue to expand in other countries, to enrich with other materials and manage to highlight more cultures, artisanal techniques and stories.
