Woman making gadgets from everyday products

hat others toss in the bin, 24-year-old Ashanti Lyttle sees as raw material for her next big idea.

Instead of throwing away empty hair gel jars, body spray containers and other beauty-product packages, the Montego Bay woman transforms them into small appliances, as she quietly builds towards her dream of manufacturing her own line of products.

“I just want to get the right manufacturers to make moulds of the pieces or the shells or so, but I would just send them my design and let them manufacture it. That’s definitely something I am looking into,” said Lyttle, who currently works as a customer service representative.

“I just find items and say this can make something and just keep it sometimes months and even years, and one day the idea just comes to mind. I find these empty stuff going to the hairdresser asking them to save it up for me, walk around and tell people, if they finish, don’t throw it away,” she explained.

Her ability to recognise the full potential of regular items, she said, started when she made doll clothes as a child from any scraps she could find. As she grew older, however, her interests shifted towards technology.

“At William Knibb High School, I did the sciences and electrical, and then went to Montego Bay Community College and got my associate degree of science in engineering. But I just went straight into the working world and never gave myself the opportunity to go back where I started,” she told THE STAR.

Although she later started her own clothing line, ASK, Lyttle said she has bigger ambitions.

“I also want to go bigger than that to have a product line and be a household name,” she said.

Lyttle shared how her first invention came into being, a memory she now laughs about.

“I decided to make a night light, bluetooth speaker box fan,” she said. “I had two empty edge control jars and this Bath and Body Works spray bottle, and I was like ‘I can make a fan’. I had this DC motor from a toy. When I looked at the Bath and Body Works bottle, I was like ‘This could be a shaft’ and I went and got some wires, switch and bulbs and immediately went to work,” she said.

Like many of her designs, she explained, there are no sketches involved. Instead, she simply looks at the empty jars in her hand and figures out what can be utilised.

“The jars were used for the base to store the speakers, the bottle was used for the shaft to store the fan components and the second jar was cut and used for the fan cover. I had this old headset and used those as speakers. But I don’t know how I think of these things, my brain is wired differently,” said Lyttle, who added that her work often takes two hours maximum.

Lyttle explained that many of her designs are created for practice, but recalled that, when Hurricane Melissa ripped through the western parishes, the night light speaker box came in handy.

“I have made a speaker from Xtreme gel jars. I made power banks from PVC pipes and dental floss case, rechargeable hand-held fans and night lights, just that so far,” she said of her creations.

However, Lyttle told THE STAR that, for a long period, she did not realise how useful her skills were. But, even when she took breaks from inventing, Lyttle said she continued saving containers, leaving those around her often amazed by what she could create.

“My family is amazed. They think I can fix anything, but I am low-key the community technician because I can fix phones and everything,” she said.

Still, as she works on her clothing brand to build her revenue and continues to search for manufacturers, Lyttle said that she remains focused on taking her ideas to the next level.

“The bachelor’s [degree] is the next step and then I am working and I am using my clothing brand, ASK as a head start. Sometimes I blame myself because I didn’t take myself seriously but now I am searching for manufacturers to execute my idea. This feels like my purpose; I am always creating something from I know myself, so I just can’t stop.”