ayala serfaty: memory at design miami

‘memory’ by ayala serfaty image © aqua creations

designboom is back from israel where we participated in vibe israel‘s ‘design tour’ hosted by non-profit social start-up kinetis. of the many shops, museums and studios that we visited during our stay, one of the stops was the working space of aqua creations. the warehouse sized building is home to all of the company’s product conception, manufacturing, shipping and administration. this is where head designer ayala serfaty has been working on her ‘memory’ lamp, part of the soma series which is presented by new york’s cristina grajales gallery at design miami 2011.

glass filament structure which acts as the framework of the light image © designboom

the lighting sculpture manipulates glass and polymer to form delicate nuances in the artist’s interpretation of nature’s organic and complex structures. the piece is made of worked glass filaments contained within a polymer membrane with light bulbs. the fibrils are 2 to 3mm thick tinted various shades of color all hand-made by glass artist sergio serra in empoli, italy. creating the spatial structure of the lamps, each individual piece is flame worked in house by studio members eytan hall and anna gautier. once the filaments have been arranged in desired shape, they are then sprayed with a clear polymer – developed in the late 40s by the US military for cocooning ships for preservation – generating a skin-like membrane.

image © designboom