Gravity Lamp
The original project at the Cleveland Institute of Art and Design was seemingly unrelated. We were to learn how to spin metal on a lathe. Among other important skills to learn was the precise pressure we had to put on the metal so as for it not to heat up, and to not leave a mark on it.
The previous lesson on metal was about copper, and out of a single sheet of about 10” by 10”, I created a small vase. Most of my classmates had made large bowls or platters but I had a vision of a smaller vase and challenged myself to slowly change the shape of it. It was a painstaking process and it took me several weeks after class, in which I was hammering at first slowly and then with more speed as I was gaining accuracy and precision. After that it had to be preheated and annealed.
Coming from Europe, what I considered normal dress was considered formal for most art students. One evening, as I was working on the hammering in one of my “business casual” outfits, a professor saw me, leaning over that little vase, with my protective glasses, apron, and small hammer… he told me that for a moment he felt he had been taken back in time to what he might have seen a century before, in a small workshop.
As a contrast to that little vase, I was curious to know whether if I used the technique of first forming it with the machine and then with the hammer, I would be able to remove all trace of machine work. Obviously, the process would be faster, and I would be able to polish it as well. The added challenge was that we had to make 4 identical pieces. Once I had made the 4 rounded plates and completed the assignment, I wondered what I could do with them. 4 bowls could be useful, but if they are out of aluminum they cannot be used for food, they can also not be enameled because the heat for the process would be too high and would cause the plates to either melt or the glass upon them to break because of the contrast in shrinking speed.
The answer came with another school project, which was to create a lamp. I could use at least two of these platters for the lamp I was beginning to envision. To me, a lamp needs to illuminate first and foremost, but it should not blind and it should be aesthetically pleasing. I had always enjoyed fiberoptics, and the designs they were starting to create that looked like starry nights, but unfortunately, I did not have access to any. Instead, I looked for something that would create a similar effect, and which I had kept for years with the goal of making holiday decorations: rice grain sized lightbulbs.
Since I had just renovated an old kitchen, I took one of the bright undercounter IKEA lights from that project, and placed it in the top platter to face towards the ceiling, and I added a turquoise Plexiglas layer for a touch of color and enhanced lightness. While I did not recreate a particular constellation, I made sure to pierce one of the platters randomly to recreate the impression of a starry night. The pieces fit together very nicely, and I decided to make it hold without fasteners, only a few pins using gravity as the “glue”.
In order to give the necessary brightness, I separated the parts with three metallic tubes, which I chose to cut diagonally for esthetic effect, following the curve of the platters. The result is a starry night with a bright background sky interspersed with three thin tubes, with which it forms very interesting shadows.
As for the other two platters, I decided to also make a lamp out of them. I kept the texture matte and inserted a colored light tube between the two. I pierced the center of the second platter about 2” in diameter, and the light is thus emitted from the center and also on the sides, very delicately. This one is more of a decorative feature and to be placed vertically.
