BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
You’ve seen chairs made from old bike parts, you’ve seen picture frames and key fobs, now here’s the ultimate in bike shop bling: Victorian-style chandeliers made from discarded wheel rims, cassettes and chains.
Mexican-Brazilian artist Carolina Fontoura Alzaga is based in the US and makes the ‘bespoke’ chandeliers upon commissioning by galleries and, of course, bike shops with a penchant for steampunk art.
On her website she says:
"The traditional chandelier is seen as a bourgeois commodity, a cachet of affluence, excess, and as such power. The recycled bicycle parts become a representation of the dismissed, invisible, and powerless, but also an affirmation of self-propelled movement.
A freestanding lamp commissioned from Alzaga costs about $850; the larger works cost from $2000 to $4500, excluding shipping and lightbulbs.
Five percent of all proceeds go to the Derailer Bike Collective, a community bike shop in Denver, Colorado.
