“Every Drop Counts” I wanted to bring awareness to the importance of water and how it is taken for granted. The piece was designed and donated for the Surge Design, Dine and Make a Difference Gala. Through the functional floor standing lamp, I shed light on the wonderful work that Surge do. Providing people with clean water and sanitation. I also want to tell the story of the journey water travels and the importance of clean water.

Many people do not even think twice about water, for them getting clean water is as easy as opening one of the many faucets in their homes. However, for around 600 million people around the world, it is not as easy. They have to travel long distances to get access to water, a burden often completed by the women and young girls. Taking away valuable time that they could have been in school or working top provide for their families.

The majority of the lamp is made from copper pipes, representing the pipes water travels through in our houses to our faucets. The valve on the lamp operates as the on/off and dimmer switch, that allows you to set the brightness of the lamp as per your preference.

The drop-shaped lampshade allows for lighting to be transferred through but also creates interesting shadows that add to the overall design. The shade and base of the lamp are covered using blue single-use aluminium coffee capsules. Representing a ripple made by a water drop and symbolise a ripple of change and how one drop can have an effect.

I won the “The Most Sustainable Design Award” for the piece at the gala.

Title: “Every Drop Counts”

Dimensions: 1500mm x 400mm x 400mm

Medium: Mixed Medium (Aluminium coffee capsules, copper pipes, valves and steel)

About the author, Mariska

Hi and welcome! My name is Mariska. I am originally from South Africa, but now call the world my home. I am an artist, designer, environmentalist, podcast host and speaker.

I started the Mama Earth Talk podcast in 2018 to share some of the things that I learned about just how easy it can be to reduce your impact on the environment. This then quickly grew into a forum that showcases the amazing things that many people are doing to make the planet better, and further into a source of hope and inspiration for many. A few of the amazing guests include Zero Waste Queen, Bea Johnson, Claude Silver, Kathryn Kellogg and zero waste chef Max La Manna.

If you do not already I urge you to follow me and my journey on social media (@designbymariska), and to refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle and rot your own waste using the handy tips I post!