Product Focus | Wave | Curiousa

Curiosity Strikes Again

Curiousa launches its new Wave collection that refines the studio's design and technical abilities into a striking, colourful range of pendants and table lamps.

Curiousa’s newest “ethereal, sculptural and serene” range comes in the form of splendid colours. The Wave collection combines the “organic nature of free-blown glass with a modern aesthetic”, describes Founder Esther Patterson. British lighting brand Curiousa was established in 2010, one year after Patterson graduated with a degree in decorative arts, her second qualification after graphic design. Patterson was pursuing both colourful textiles and bone china lighting, when a visit to a local glass blower, Anthony Wassell, showed her a way to marry up both mediums. “It was an amazing eureka moment, bringing together my two loves - form and colour. At the time, lighting felt quite masculine in greys and whites, so I thought there might be a niche in the market for some simple but still decorative, lighting.” Based in the lush countryside of the Derbyshire Dales, Patterson takes a lot of her inspiration from nature and directs it both into her designs as well as into the kind of company she wants to lead. “I was never going

to be a city girl, it was always the countryside for me. It keeps you grounded – reminds you of what’s important in life and I try to bring that balance every day into work,” she says. “Back in 2013 I was commissioned by the Haywood Gallery to design a new collection to work alongside their Light Show, and that’s when I first played with the concept of stacking glass components, creating the Triptych Stack collection, which is still popular today. “The Wave collection is an extension of that same principle but I wanted to challenge myself and my team to create a range that would work in multiple planes, both horizontally and vertically, to create effortless, almost ethereal floating sculptures of light that still retained the hallmarks of Curiousa’s form and colour. “We knew to achieve this we had to explore a continuous light source, not just a single lamp, to allow each component to reveal itself. We started experimenting with a whole host of variants to find the exact technology that would match my vision, and achieve the right ‘feel’, with the right control. The solution had to mirror and complement the same effortless grace and strength of the sculptured glass forms themselves.” Patterson was spurred on to bring her ideas to life since her collaboration with designer Adam Nathanial Furman in the late summer of 2021. “Inspired by my Triptych Stacks, he designed two floor lamps using stacked semi-opaque orb shapes, and I suggested it would be great if we could add a suspended beam to the collection. The problem was, we had never used this approach before, so we had to start from scratch, working out how to create a continuous horizontal beam of light that was strong enough to hold multiple pieces of free-blown glass,” explains Patterson. “The collection with Adam, which we called the Glowbules, was shown as part of the Decorex Future Heritage in October last year. The technological approach to the Wave collection is the result of a whole year’s worth of honing and refining that solution.” The Ripple Beam was the most challenging piece for Patterson and her team to develop, as they needed to refine the design to work with clear glass that revealed the light source inside and ensure it worked well as part of the overall aesthetic. Calculating the structural strength of the piece to hold the weight of glass whilst looking effortless was also a key challenge.

Describing the technologies used for this collection, Patterson explains that low voltage LEDs are powered through two 1.5mm steel cables, which also act as the weight supports. “The positive and negative cables are insulated by 3D printed sheathing, which sit neatly inside the end caps. The transformer is designed to be housed inside the ceiling void with a range of ceiling plate options offered for single or multipledrop chandeliers,” she explains further. As for the glass housings, each piece is hand-crafted and free-blown without the use of moulds, much the same as all glass pieces from Curiousa. “Our abiding principle is to capture the intrinsic beauty of the glass itself, hold it at the centre of every design with all other elements and finishes designed to complement and enhance. “Every piece of glass has been carefully ground and polished to align perfectly, creating an effortless flow, combining transparent and sandblasted glass within the designs. “The Ripple Beam, Crest and Cascade pendants and the table lamps are all finished with locally turned brass end caps, with the Crest and Cascade using a single, hand-turned walnut disc, which visually adds balance to the design, whilst acting as a cushion to the lower glass pieces. “The Wave Collection will work well for customers who value originality, colour and warmth; who are excited to see how traditional materials and techniques can be applied to a modern design aesthetic,” continues Patterson. “The Crest and the Cascade pendants work perfectly as multi-drop chandeliers for residential stairwells or hotel foyers, whilst the Ripple Beam would look equally stunning in a luxurious restaurant setting or a private home dining space. “Their sculptural approach, using colour and organic form definitely sets them apart. There’s nothing like them on the market, which is often dominated by minimalist shapes and white light - we want to challenge the market to celebrate colour and freedom of form with us, and the beauty of hand-blown glass. “I am so thrilled with the results. The Wave collection shows the beauty of free-blown glass first and foremost - which is always top of my design brief - but does so with bolder, more modern lines.” www.curiousa.co.uk Images: Chris Webb Photography