Worm Cozies allow you to keep composting worms hidden in your home or workplace. No one suspects a plant stand, a teddy bear or paper shredder to contain an active worm colony. Here are my instructions on how to make the plant stand Worm Cozy out of a 5-gallon bucket.
By Erika Braccini, designer and recent graduate of Camberwell College of Arts, London, UK.
The Gaia Cabinet is a movable furniture unit that contains soil and earthworms. It has been designed to be brought around the city to schools to educate children on how important earthworms are, how important is to limit food waste, and to recycle it by feeding it to the earthworms, who will turn it into nutrients that will enrich the soil, making it 1000 times more nutrient. By using this enriched soil children are encouraged in planting and growing their own food, and by doing so learn how healthier food from highly nourishing soil is, and at the same time are also stimulated in being more connected with nature. By encouraging children, even on a small scale, in growing their own food, Gaia Cabinet can be the way forward in ensuring that children eat healthier food, therefore breaking the power of multinational corporations that control a big chunk of a food chain mainly made of non healthy and often GMO foods. In addition, Gaia Cabinet also wants to stimulate children and people in being more respectful of nature, and by getting in touch with the earthworms who have played an important role in our lives, could make children realise the importance of the environment that surrounds us and of preventing its destruction.
The main purpose of Gaia Cabinet is to bring attention on important issues through play, positivity, happiness and colours instead of seriousness and gloominess. I believe that if important issues such as food waste, healthy eating, respect to the environment and the importance of earthworms for our lives are explained in a more playful and interacting way, children are more likely to understand the importance of them.
I like to call myself an activist, environmentalist and happy designer, as I believe that design is a new form of positive activism that has the potential to become a powerful tool to tackle environmental and social issues. This is the reason why I decided to embark on a journey through the field of design and what has led me to graduate in three-dimensional design from Camberwell College of Arts in June 2014.
In fact, I have faith that play, creativity, positivity and happiness is the way forward to tackle and overcome environmental and social issues.
The design of the cabinet is fundamental for the project and for my ideals. Since this project is all about raising awareness on food waste, connecting and respecting nature, growing food and have a healthy and balanced diet, is also important that the product itself is coherent with these principles. Gaia Cabinet is entirely made with recycled plastic and stainless steel, both fully recyclable and locally sourced in UK. It is very easy to assemble and disassemble, therefore once its lifespan is over, it can be easily placed into the recycle bin, making it a truly zero waste product. The product is born from a thorough research on how to limit its impact on the environment, and be in line with the principles of a circular economy, an economy without waste where all the materials are going back into the system from where they were coming from.
Gaia cabinet has already been tested at Rhyl Primary Schools, at the Assembly Community Centre and at Oliver Goldsmith Primary School (schools in London), as part of my research for my final major project. In an hour workshop I explained to children why earthworms are important for human lives, why is important to have a healthy diet and how to prevent food waste. I was letting children touch the worms so they could have a better understanding of them and explained them how to compost with worms. After the lesson on earthworms, compost and food growing, we were making simple clay pots together that I took back to university and fired, glazed and donated to them so they could start planting their own edible plants. The workshops have been successful as children were very happy to see me after a few months when I was going back to schools to bring them the pots. Teachers were happy and willing to have more workshops in the schools and engage with different age groups.
The aim of Gaia Cabinet is to create a cycle within which every form of life will help and support each other, and provide a great ecosystem.
Please visit my website at www.erikabraccini.com for more information about Gaia Cabinet project, a video of the project and images of the cabinet.
We at WormCulture are honored that the Portland Oregon designer Joe Wirtheim created a propaganda poster for worms. It is a new addition to his long-running series called The Victory Garden of Tomorrow. It includes several space age chickens, plants and people and you can see the whole series on his website. We are told that this new poster, Worms will do the Work will eventually be available for purchase there.
Joe says: “this project is committed to civic innovation and social progress — better food, better gardens, and better cities. I get really excited about edible school gardens, city bicycles, home cooking, backyard chickens, beekeeping, rooftop gardens and really anything that brings health and activity to people’s lives. I love looking at vintage graphics, especially mid-century propaganda and advertising.”
About this design: “I’m inspired by the power and relentless energy of such a small creature. As described by Youngs and the Worm Culture blog, these creatures and their microbe allies take our discards and attack them with vigor. The result is a valuable resource for any gardener. I wanted to show our Red Wriggler in a heroic light among their work; cute, harmless and in our service.”
The McAllister family created 3 artworks that worms and humans can enjoy. Lorrie made two compostable hats – modeled by daughters Iris and Harriet. From Lorrie:
“I’m interested in compostable fashion and sustainable art about nature and our relationship to it. It is our responsibility to ensure the long-term health of our world and its inhabitants –you, me, worms and all living creatures.”
And this is 8-year old Harriet’s inspired collage, Worm Digging in Earth.
“I love worms and the environment, so I made art about worms. I hope that more people will learn about and care for worms.”
by Loren Kronemyer
Worm Wide Web is a collection of videos that document the live performance of garden insects. Moving in condensed time-lapse, the creatures appear to congregate together and articulate familiar symbols related to communications technology. Originally conceived as part of the City of Subiaco pARk project, these videos are embedded in the site-specific augmented reality app hosted by the Subiaco Art Centre. When viewed through the app, the videos are overlayed onto the pavement, making it appear as though the insects are appearing out of the garden itself. Standing on their own, the videos exist as a simple but evocative tribute to the innovative communication and emergent intelligence strategies of these commonplace garden fauna.
The other videos in this series can be viewed here.
To see more of Loren’s artwork, visit her website.
Students in a Cybiotic Interaction Design Class taught by Andrew Quitmeyer at Georgia Tech created this interactive board game that allows humans to play with worms. I’m not sure how much fun this game is for the worms, but the designers, Katie Staples and Eric Hamilton, certainly created an complete project package. It has a good story, electronic detection circuitry, motivational elements, a 3D game board, and an entire “Instructable” that shows you how to build your own.
“NASA has taken worms to the ISS on their own special capsule. There was an accident aboard the station and the worm astronauts have to navigate to the escape capsule to return to Earth. The airlock to the escape capsule has been damaged but can be reached from the other side of the ship. The human astronauts are helping their wormy comrades reach the capsule by using a series of warning lights in each quadrant of the station.”
I particularly enjoyed their reflection on their project and future plans for it, which included giving the worms more control, building 2 mazes and letting the worms play each other by triggering the doors and lights. They also suggest “eliminating any ’empty space’ in the game board layout because the worms tend to migrate to those areas that a dark and quiet.”
I guess worms still win when it comes to finding dark, empty space to inhabit.
Worms in Space 3D electronic game board.
Worm Cozies are designed to help humans feel more comfortable hosting worms in their homes. Based on the concept of appliance cozies, which were originally created as a way to hide the sight of garish machines inside the domestic space of the kitchen, these worm cozies similarly function as a softening interface that will help us get used to the idea of living with worm ecosystems.
Teddy Bear Worm Tamer
Worm Cozy Fuzzy Plant Stand
Composting worms are excellent co-habitants that can help us reduce our greenhouse gas output by eating waste paper and food scraps that would otherwise be sent to landfills, which generate methane. Local, in-home worms can transform domestic organic waste into a rich, nutritious fertilizer that can be fed to houseplants, food gardens, trees or lawns. Worm ecosystems are odor-free, silent and thrive in dark, moist places with food, so they will not want to leave their worm cozy. I understand that some people are squeamish about the idea of living with worms, which is why these cozies are designed to be friendly, fuzzy, and discrete.
Working Paper Shredder Worm Cozy
Worm Cozy Cook Pots
These pieces are on display in the Vermiculture Makers Club Exhibition in Louisville, Kentucky.
I’ve made instructions on how to make the plant stand cozy so you can build your own.
by Andrea Ross
Worm, your heart gallops like a five-legged horse on open range—
Why do you need so many hearts?
Heart-rent from grinding through cast-offs?
Unlucky in love?
5-hearted worm, like a 5-pointed star, a 5-fingered hand—
your castings form astral projections on deep cave walls of our past.
Worm, heart of the earth. Skin breathing, thin-skinned,
your skin breath inhales our shabby whispers.
–I have sliced too many with my shovel’s blade.
Visit Andrea’s blog, The Sought After
Worm Culture 