Positively Brilliant - Lighting Designs by Bec Brittain

Irwin Weiner ASID - I've just been shot up with truth serum, and I cannot lie: many of the exhibits at the latest Architectural Digest Home Design Show were boring and same-old-same-old. So imagine my delight when I discovered Bec Brittain, the talented industrial design and architecture trained product designer (from lighting to jewelry). Everything she does has a sculptural edge to it, a love of beautiful materials, a familiarity borne of combining elements from our collective past, and a love of modern LED technology. Her Maxhedron two-way mirror pendant light (top photo) is a revelation ... a floating optical spaceship that looks like a piece of contemporary designer jewelry.

Brittain's SHY Light (photo above) features skinny LED tubes in brass fittings that can be configured into infinite custom shapes. I loved how she's reworked the designs of Gerit Rietveld's 1920 Hanging Lamp - with its sculptural use of fluorescent tubes - yet given homage to his influence. Her beautiful A Shades line (photo below) features sensuous copper pendant shades suspended by leather rope.

Visit the Bec Brittain website for more information. Designers like Bec are the future of the interior design industry, and I hope to see many more push-the-envelope designs from her.

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3 Favorite Tiffany Lamps

Irwin Weiner ASID - Louis Comfort Tiffany was a master of interior design and decoration, and the lamps he created in the Tiffany Studios kept up with the times, changing from oil and gas lamps to lamps powered by electricity. Here are three designs we really love; click on each photo for more information.

What lamps are currently pushing the envelope? Click here to learn more about Modern Sculptural Lighting.

The following video from the Reading Public Museum is a great review of Tiffany's business life and career. It's fascinating, and you'll learn many new details about this fascinating artist and businessman.

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10 Home Lighting Tips from a Tony Winner

Irwin Weiner ASID - Go to an interior designer for all-things decorating, including lighting. But sometimes even the pros need to get a little inspiration from specialists in the field. One such font of wisdom is Kevin Adams, a Tony Award winner who specializes in lighting.

Here are some of Kevin's home lighting tips:

• At a dinner party, try not to have overhead lighting glaring down on your family and guests. "Light coming straight down on people is not flattering to the face or any object in the room."
• "Layers of light" will create the desired lighting for any party or special evening. Kevin uses table lamps of varying heights to create warm and friendly pools of light. The interplay of light and shadows is highly desirable.
• Install dimmers on all your lights to adjust the level of light at any time of day in your home. "Even the music sounds better when the lights are down."
• Put low-wattage light bulbs in your table lamps for parties - after all, no one's going to be reading a book!
• "People look very handsome in amber light." Kevin uses 13-watt amber-hued compact fluorescent light bulbs or CFLs - colored CFLs will produce a more saturated color than traditional incandescent bulbs.

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4 Favorite Brad Michael Vintage Lights

Irwin Weiner ASID - In our local Bucks County, PA weekly newspaper this weekend, we read about a Doylestown property management professional who decided to follow his hobby more seriously and open up a vintage lighting store Lucent Lampworks on Etsy. Brad Michael thought there was an absence of good handmade lighting options on the crafts-and-handmade online marketplace, and he's filling a great niche there.

His first sales were to customers in Paris and San Juan and now a full 40% of his sales are outside the United States. Visit his Etsy shop before his work is shown on an upcoming episode of ABC's Extreme Makeover Home Edition - I predict a rush to buy his often one-of-a-kind lights. Brad uses vintage and new glass, flea market and yard sale finds, reproduction wire, and other repurposed and recycled objects that unite the old and new. Click on the photos of 4 of my favorite lights (above and below) from his current collection to learn more about each piece.

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