During a brief time working at a bakery, Yukiko Morita was frustrated by all the bread that goes to waste—and she decided to do something about it. She’s breathing a new life into stale bread bought from local bakeries through her signature lamps, known as Pampshades.
The way Morita looks at bread changed while she worked at a bakery as a student when she realized how much unsold bread was thrown away at the end of each day. She would take it home and use it as decoration, and that was how the idea for Pampshade was born.
“This modest attempt at daily resistance changed when one evening I saw the light from the western sun illuminating a piece of bread whose white contents I had hollowed out and eaten. For a brief, inexpressible moment, it glowed beautifully within the darkened room,” she wrote on her official website.
She decided to join forces with local bakeries and buy unsold bread at the highest possible price at the end of the day. Antiseptic and mildew proofing are then used to treat the bread, as a way of keeping the mold away. From bread loaves and baguettes to toast slices and croissants, Morita’s lamps take many shapes and forms and they’re meant to warm the hearts of those around them, just like bread itself.
