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agnes candelabra commission prototyping

Bubble mock-ups

We experiment with forms using our custom hardware and plastic bubbles. Our clients approve the prototype before we build. Feel free to refer to these images when specifying what you are looking for. You can cut and paste into an email to us.

barnacles

with Bec Brittain

Making the Knotty Bubbles

in collaboration with Michiko Sakano, Kristin Barron and Bec Brittain
exclusively for The Future Perfect Editions
thanks to my friends at the knotting circle, led by designer Kristin Barron

Bec Brittain masterminding the structural rope

glass artist Michiko Sakano, who blows all of the bubbles for our studio; the 23k gold foil we use is made in her hometown in Japan








Kristin overseeing the knottiness.

Little creatures

with Charlotte Brocard
magnets and pockets connect these simple beings with a lot on their minds.
the video

Agnes candelabra process

We experimented with our chandelier parts to arrive at one modular form to build the candelabra. The final parts are machined and assembled with simple hardware.

metal finishing process

All of our hardware is finished by hand locally.


the lovely Diana

McMasterpieces show

Experimenting with folded and stitched pages from the catalog.

gold stickers

Finn helps...

with lots of gold stickers in our booth, covered in the Times

sonjie's opening at gigi's gallery

bubble renderings

developing branching Bubble chandeliers

inspired

6-min video of chandelier process

murrine is a Venetian technique whereby the glassblower takes a solid gather of clear glass, rolls in in color powder and then flattens the sides. They may repeat this a few times. They stretch this gather of glass into a very long, thin form called "cane." The cane then cools a bit and hardens. Then the glassblower chops it into tiny cross-sections, looking like small tiles. These pieces are arranged on a pastorelli, and then a new hot glass bubble is gathered and blown, and rolled into this plate of warm tiles. All the glass is fused together. We then did an experiment of rolling the murrine after the pick-up into 14k gold foil (for kicks) and were delighted when it all clustered to the murrine bits, being the hottest points.

video/about my work

a 10-minute excerpt from a panel discussion with Carolyn Strauss of slowLab and artist Nava Lubelski in the context of the Slow Design movement. Presented by the Museum of Arts and Design at the Scope Art Fair March 2008. All slides presented in the talk can also be viewed more clearly within my blog date book.

men at work

ian + finn in studio

a comparision of wabi-sabi to modernism

Similarities
o Both apply to all matter of manmade object, spaces, and designs.
o Both are strong reactions against the dominant, established sensibilities of their time. Modernism was a radical departure from 19th century classicism and eclecticism. Wab-sabi was a radical departure from the Chinese perfection and gorgeousness of the 16th century and earlier.
o Both eschew any decoration that is not integral to structure.
o Both are abstract, nonrepresentational ideals of beauty.
o Both have readily identifiable surface characteristics. Modernism is seamless, polished, and smooth. Wab-sabi is earthy, imperfect, and variegated.

Differences
Modernism/ Wabi-sabi
Primarily expressed in the public domain/ Primarily expressed in the private domain.
Implies a logical, rational worldview/ Implies an intuitive worldview
Absolute/ Relative.
Looks for universal, prototypical solutions/ Looks for personal, idiosyncratic solutions.
Mass-produced, modular/ One-of-a-kind, variable.
Expresses faith in progress/ There is no progress.
Future-oriented/ Present-oriented.
Believes in the control of nature/ Believes in the fundamental uncontrollability of nature.
Romanticizes technology/ Romanticizes nature.
People adapting to machines/ People adapting to nature.
Geometric organization of form (sharp, precise, definite shapes and edges./ Organic organization of form (soft, vague shapes and edges.)
The box as metaphor (rectilinear, precise, contained./ The bowl as metaphor ( free shape, open at top.)
Manmade materials/ Natural materials.
Ostensibly slick/ Ostensibly crude.
Needs to be well-maintained/ Accommodates to degradation and attrition.
Purity makes expression richer/ Corrosion and contamination make its expression richer.
Solicits the reduction of sensory information/ Solicits the expansion of sensory information.
Is tolerant of ambiguity and contradiction/ Is comfortable with ambiguity and contradiction.
Cool/ Warm.
Generally light and bright/ Generally dark and dim.
Function and utility are primary values/ Function and utility are not so important.
Perfect materiality is an ideal/ Perfect immateriality is an ideal.
Everlasting/ To everything there is a season.
Leonard Koren, 1994

[In my work I strive to capture the Wabi-Sabi while still borrowing from the best of Modernism. For example, the modular, machined hardware of the chandeliers allows for a system to hold the hand-blown, organic glass globes.]

barnacles take over

about the work

I have been in the lighting design industry for 10 years, but it was when I was pregnant in 2003 that my personal approach and interest with lighting became clear. I realized I was losing touch with the reason I came into design: the feeling of making things with my own hands and having the freedom to evolve designs when the need or desire was there. I build and experiment in my studio with form and then rely on a team of studio designers, glassblowers, metalworkers, and wiring experts to execute the final product. I continue to be amazed with the transformative power of lighting on any space. My interests are set evenly within design and art and I employ processes of each in every project. The industrial design can begin with narrative or abstracted meaning and the drawings can be driven by formal design principals and repetitive techniques. The great majority of my lighting work is custom and each piece is made in close collaboration with the client's ideas and desires. This is the aspect that was really missing for me in design. Having the luxury to make each piece to order allows me to constantly explore and research and show clients the most recent thinking or sketch models. The challenge and change is there which I realized is essential for me to sustain a fresh interest. This is why I view it as a similar process to my drawings shown in gallery settings, a theme can be taken and played with so many different ways...developing new versions and in doing, generating new directions. I stumble upon new ideas through a hands-on process of making and looking.

Bio

After earning her Bachelor of Arts in English from Kenyon College and working for the Smithsonian Institution, Lindsey Adelman received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Rhode Island School of Design. Following graduation she worked in design development at Resolute Lighting in Seattle before moving to New York to work for David Weeks at his Brooklyn lighting design studio. Adelman and Weeks collaborated on a paper clip-on lampshade that received awards from I.D. and Blueprint magazines. In 2000, the two founded the company Butter to put Lunette into production and to explore other projects that defied the typical the design-studio context. They went on to receive the Editor’s award for lighting at the ICFF. At the same time, Adelman began a series of intricate, obsessive drawings made with human hair and tape on paper. The work quickly found its way into galleries and publications and continues to be created and shown internationally. In 2006 Adelman and Weeks said goodbye to Butter and Adelman began to design and produce light fixtures on her own. Recently featured in the New York TImes, the hand-blown glass chandeliers have enjoyed an immediate positive reception. Adelman and her team continually experiment and explore with new glass techniques and the overall form of the fixtures. Projects by Adelman and Butter have been widely featured in the press including World of Interiors, Wallpaper, Metropolitan Home, Paper, New York, and Surface; exhibited at the Cooper-Hewitt and New Museum; and included in the books Dish: International Design for the Home, Brooklyn: New Style, and Young Designers: Americas. Her drawings are currently shown with Vanessa Suchar in NY, Miami, Paris, and London and at Matter in Brooklyn. Lindsey lives with her husband, Ian, and their son Finn in Brooklyn.