A continued exploration of the new territory found at the intersection of traditional craft techniques, Encircle presents a wall mounted luminaire that blends Adam Markowitz’s fine woodcraft with the traditional mouthblown glass of Ruth Allen. Drawing on a rich history of Italian experimentation of blown glass luminaires, the light pushes each craftsperson to their limits to create a sconce that bends timber, glass and light.

A millimetre-thick wooden radius is the only thing which suspends the heavy and fragile glass cylinder. The timber is cross-laminated and then turned by hand on a lathe using an innovative lost-faceplate technique, before finally being hand-carved. It is only through the double curvature of the shape that the strength is achieved. The glass cylinder requires a team of 3 glass artists working in unison, lead by Allen, to pull a hollow section of cane at the end of a blow pipe, which is then gravity elongated at the top of a ladder before being slumped over a sacrificial timber form, turned by Markowitz.

An LED is rebated within the timber and uses the double curvature of the blown glass cylinder to diffuse and refract the light, creating soft illumination on the wall and keeping obscuring the LEDs. The sconce is mounted to the wall by a brass cylinder, which holds the wood and glass element just off the wall surface.

The goal of this collaborative, craft-based approach is to assert the relevance and agency of skilled artisanry in the present critical shift brought on by environmental, social and economic disruptions. What role does craft have in this new paradigm, which demands “new materials” and “new approaches” while by definition craft techniques are rooted in the old, in tradition? This collaborative series argues that there is an alternative sustainable model to the endless demand for “new”. Hand skills are cultural vessels and conduits of social values. They define a physical connection to material, place and another human being. Through the skilled physical manipulation by hands, there is a singular thread that goes all the way back to the dawn of what it means to be a human being. This identity must have a voice and a role to play in the way Design grapples with and finds solutions for present challenges.