ERIN LOREK AND SARAH AMATT
DANCING LIGHT
Based in South Shropshire, designer Sarah Amatt creates marbled patterns on paper, inspired by the Japanese technique suminagashi. The technique is over a thousand years old, yet her lampshades are remarkably contemporary in their feel.
Amatt’s elegant designs are completely unique and unrepeatable,
like fingerprints made in ink.
Medium Shade 3
The suminagashi technique involves playing with ink as it floats on water.
It requires a poise and stillness from the designer, who creates concentric circles
with subtle touches from a brush and a gentle stirring movement that encourages
the ink to move. Amatt describes how she allows the ink patterns to reveal themselves.
“There is always the element of chance and happenstance when you are making
a design, which is why it is so intriguing – it can lead you in new directions.
The elegance and fluidity of the pattern can only be achieved using hand-eye coordination. The act of making a suminagashi image is both calming and meditative.”
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Before adopting the Japanese traditional suminagashi techniques,
Amatt worked with traditional Turkish designs to create bookbinders.
“I’ve always loved working with paper due to its versatility, feel and appearance.
I use washi (Japanese paper) for the lampshades, specifically Tosa washi, a traditional paper that is made with kozo fibres from the mulberry bush. It is very strong
and absorbent, perfect for suminagashi, but also translucent enough to give a soft,
clear light when used as a shade.”
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Her designs and skills evolved during the spring 2020 lockdown,
into loose, open pieces that she has used to create a series
of lampshades. The lampshades are monochromatic, simple and elegant.
Monoprint
“I work almost entirely with black ink on white paper. I love the contrast and simplicity this lends to the image. I like the clarity that black and white brings to the design.”
YOU CAN BUY SARAH AMATT’S PIECES
THROUGH OUR ONLINE SHOP
Erin Lorek is the founder of the studio Lorekform.
Based in Brooklyn, New York, the small team work
with materials and forms that play with light.
The materials Lorek chooses are simple,
but her process as a designer draws out
a certain character in the material that makes
it seem to shift and change. The light fixtures capture different tones of light at different times of day,
so the character of the piece is fluid.
BEACON INSTALLATION
“The work in the Cluster Crafts shop is my Iron+Glass series, my only full collection so far.”
Each piece aims to answer certain questions. The Beacon Pendant,
for example, is an exploration of two questions: how glass can be held
in the air in the least distracting way and how can the texture of glass most encourage light to play on its surface.
Lorek works as if light itself were a material that she could use
in her studio, inviting it to come and dance with her creations.
She manipulates textures and transparency so that the light
has different surfaces across which to move.
The final pieces are created through a series of imprints made in different materials. A texture is laid into clay, then cast into iron,
and finally into glass. With each step, the specific material is pushed
to its limits and leaves its own mark and set of beautiful imperfections.
SURROUND PENDANT
BEACON PENDANT
“As we transform the clay into iron bubbles and cracks weave themselves around the original impression.
Just like the wind creates a dance across a bough
full of leaves so too do these aberrations across
the surface of the iron. Casting directly onto this surface produces a beautifully imperfect piece of glass that both collects and refracts the light.”
The Surround Pendant explores how iron-cast glass
can be three dimensional, and how the artist can take advantage of negative space in the piece.
The steel band the surrounds the glass prevents the glass from rocking and helps disperse the light from the bulb.
Lorek has a degree in theatrical lighting design
from West Chester University, so she deeply understands the importance of light in adding
to a performance and experience.
“When we look at the way light interacts
with the leaves of a tree, for example, we see lots
of things happening: a distinct, repeating pattern
but also all these anomalies in the way the light filters through the leaves. The light brings a level
of personality to the scene.”
SURROUND PENDANT
Thank you for reading,
Katie De Klee & Cluster Team.