Sarah Turner Creates Gorgeous Chandelier from Recycled Cola Bottles

At 2 meters wide the lights make quite a statement, and they were made using 190 plastic Coca Cola bottles each. There are 5 of the large lights in total, and each is made up of rings of the plastic bottles and a globe in the middle. The globe is Sarah’s Cola 30 design, which is made from 30 Coca Cola bottles hand cut and sculpted into decorative forms. The Cola 30 was the first light Sarah made from waste plastic bottles when she first started her work over 4 years ago.

Sarah is of course thrilled to be chosen for the project. She says: “When I first started making lights from waste plastic bottles I always hoped that Coca Cola would notice me and my work and get in touch. So being commissioned by them for the Olympics really is a dream come true for me. It feels like a great honor to be working with Coca Cola for this once in a life time event. ”

Sarah says: “I wanted the lights to have an Olympic look to them which is why I chose to make them as circular disks with rings of the plastic bottles, reminiscent of the Olympic rings. I also liked the idea of having the classic looking light bulbs visible, it reminded me of the infamous Coca Cola Christmas truck. I really wanted to include my Cola 30 light, I thought the contrast between the whole plastic bottles and the transformation they go through with the Cola 30 was a fantastic thing to show”.

They also commissioned her to create an enormous 9-meter-tall sculpture made from waste Coca Cola bottles and cans. Thousands of pieces were hand cut then tied onto invisible wires in the form of a diver freeze framed in three different stages of a high dive. When the breeze catches the wires, the pieces spin and move adding life and energy to the sculpture. The brief set by Coca Cola was quite open, so Sarah got to really use her imagination and creative recycling skills.

Sarah says: “I thought that as sport and the Olympics are all about energy, activity and movement, I wanted to somehow portray this in the sculpture. This is when I thought about showing a high diver in different stages of the dive. Diving fascinates me – it’s so precise and graceful yet quick and over in a moment. I thought by capturing and almost freeze framing the dive in its different stages we can look at them in more detail and celebrate them.”