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CLUSTER CRAFTS FAIR

French designer Romane Perelle works with furniture,
space and functional design objects. Currently based in Lyon,
Perelle works as a set designer at the Pompidou Centre in Paris.

Perelle has a particular interest in how people adopt and appropriate objects,
and in how these design pieces come to life with their own personality
in the hands of different users. She studied lights in Helsinki under the mentorship
of Esa Vesmanen.

“In Finland country they have a fabulous link with light,” she says,
“that was my starting point of my desire to play with it in my design.”

As part of Cluster Craft’s online exhibition, Perelle presents a series
of flatpack lamps that are based on the interpretation of the shape of a bulb
and the way light emanates from it.

Her idea is to make lamps on demand as they are ordered,
not keeping any stock. Perelle works with laser cutting and 3D printing
technologies to manufacture her pieces, meaning there is minimal waste
in the process. Her work blends together craftsmanship with digital design.

Like many people in the world during the global pandemic, Perelle found herself spending more time than ever in her own domestic space. As a designer,
she spent much of last year focusing on the question of what makes our home
spaces feel good to us. She observed how light has an almost miraculous effect o
n transforming spaces, providing atmosphere and temperature.

Ceramic artist Hayden Richer also uses occasionally uses light in her work.
Where Perelle has used the idea of a bulb as a starting point for exploring shape
and light, Richer instead uses the bulb to adorn her sculptural pieces,
which attempt to capture the ideas of weight, mass and the effect and slowness of time.

“My interest lies in emphasising opposing ideas of gradual growth and weathering,”
says Richer. “My works often present a slow storyline along an almost tectonically scaled timeline; one of quiet, humble, and earnest growth.”

Born in Ohio and based in Detroit, Michigan, Richer’s work attempts
to take mundane or monotonous shapes and work them into sculptures.

“The series examines what it means to physically choose to live with weight
in a way of gentle, quiet function and daily interaction, and what it looks like
when ideas of weight become land-like markers in a domestic landscape.”

Richer works with clay and plaster, enjoying the way the materials mold and seem
to remember patterns of making. She has recently started to integrate glass into her work, playing with subtle tonal changes in the pieces and ensuring that the shift in materials doesn’t distract the eye of the viewer. Her intention is always to create a feeling
of harmony and evolution in her work.