Dezeen Magazine

Stress lighting by Ohad Benit

Ohad Benit shapes blown-glass Stress lights like soap bubbles

These handmade lights by Israeli designer Ohad Benit mimic the shapes of soap bubbles being formed.

Stress lighting by Ohad Benit

Each of the lamps is supported by a brass framework, which rings the glass shade in much the same way as the circle of a stick used to blow bubbles.

The Stress collection – named to reflect the tension between the two materials – is available as floor lamp versions, pendants, and wall lights held on curved brass wire.

Stress lighting by Ohad Benit

The floor versions rest on minimal metal tripods, with legs dipped in white paint. Benit created the lights in partnership with a local glassblower, after being drawn to the "randomness" of the medium.

Glass is blown into each of the brass rings, before being left to cool and naturally fall into its final shape – making each light unique.

Stress lighting by Ohad Benit

"The materials, reaching their boundaries, are a meeting of two different forms that must adjust to each other; testing their levels of endurance by stretching them, examining the physical encounter between them," said Benit, whose studio Mishmacool is based in Tel Aviv.

The designer also previously combined glass and brass for a series of insect-like vases with just enough room to hold a single flower stem.

Stress lighting by Ohad Benit

"One is tough and elastic, the other hard and brittle, the fluid inflated manually through the brass rod," added Benit. "I was interested in how such a fluid free material gets constrained."

The designer had to repeatedly experiment with the process to perfect it, with the glass shades often exploding or breaking along the way.

Stress lighting by Ohad Benit

Stockholm-based Studio EO has also played with the fluid qualities of hand-blown glass, pairing it with marble bases to create a collection of vases that appear as if melting. Lindsay Adelman's Catch lights follow a similar theme, designed to look as if their glass shades are oozing over brass bases.

Photography is by Itay Benit.