The dramatic Chiquita chandelier by Dutch designer Anneke Jakobs is a brilliant upcycled piece. Made from 29 used Chiquita banana boxes and 300 paper fasteners, this upcycled chandelier is creative and fun. The best part? Anneke Jakobs has released open source plans so that you too can create your own Chiquita chandelier.

The background

Every now and then one stumbles across brand packaging that is simply too beautiful to throw away. We’re talking about the type of branding that you actually want to showcase, rather than cover up for reuse. Iconic branding such as Chiquita. With it’s bold blue and yellow colouring and trademark Miss Chiquita logo, we’re not surprised that Anneke Jakobs decided to start saving discarded Chiquita banana boxes.

The story

Jakobs was studying at the Utrecht School of Product Design and working on the side at a supermarket. She began collecting the beautiful used Chiquita boxes that were being thrown away.  The lightbulb went off when she received a school assignment to create a product design around food.

I got inspired by shape of the print on the box and the folding/bending-quality of the cardboard.

Jakobs decided she wanted to use as little extra material as possible to assemble the chandelier. So she came up with the idea of using paper fasteners. Therefore the process of making a Chiquita chandelier is all about carving, folding and paper fastening.

The method

While overwhelming at a glance to understand, Jakobs’ Chiquita chandelier is essentially 3 tiers of chandelier groupings. Each grouping has a unique pattern in which the Chiquita cutouts are arranged and fastened. Once assembled the 3 groups are fastened together with paper fasteners.

We think Jakob’s visual plans explain it best.

Would you give this Chiquita chandelier a go? If you do please be sure to send us photos!

Source: Anneke Jakobs