Cypress (Zarrin & Saki's Upper Elementary Class)

Children have an anxious concern for living beings and the satisfaction of this instinct fills them with delight. – Maria Montessori

The project is inspired from the following quote from Jenny Finch

• “Never fear shadows. They simply mean there is a light shining nearby”

The lamp consists of the following:

• A lampshade made of copper panels embossed by hand with each child depicting something they feared or fear, framed in brass.


• A lamp base made from the recycled slate of a broken blackboard from the Upper Elementary classroom, with a dimmer, and LED bulb, and an auxiliary outlet with a/c and USB sockets on it.

The children were challenged to depict an animal that they feared with the understanding that the light of the lamp will banish the “fear” away. The group had great fun coming up with creepy ideas, and loved the idea that they had their own panel to focus on and initial.