Shimmering soap bubbles

Enchanting, unique objects, fascinating works of art made from mouth-blown glass – Simone Lüling’s ELOA lights add a touch of magic to any meal.

A vision of elegance and technology

One day, Simone Lüling’s young daughter came home from a nursery trip with a small, mouthblown glass object and the Swiss designer was struck by an unexpected sense of envy that her daughter had been able to witness such a wonderful, delicate thing being made. As a mother, Simone Lüling didn’t begrudge her daughter the beautiful object, but as she explains to us, “I thought to myself that there must be something deeper going on to evoke such a strong emotion. My conclusion was that I also wanted to make objects like this.”

So she decided to get to grips with working with glass as a material and discover its secrets. Then a friend asked her to design some lights to contrast with the industrial style of their open kitchen in their loft. One thing led to another and the success story of lighting designer Simone Lüling and her company ELOA began.

„The kitchen is a place that awakens the senses, an atmospheric place, a place where life happens. This is exactly what I wanted to express with my lights.“

Simone Lüling, designerin and founder of ELOA.

A cloudy idea

“My first idea for this stark space was to create a sort of shimmering soap bubble,” explaines Lüling. “The kitchen is a place of communication and conviviality, an atmospheric place, a place that awakens the senses. Kitchens are always buzzing and full of life. I wanted to use my lights to give the room the right feel and not just create a technical light fitting. There’s nothing worse than lighting just for the sake of light alone.”

Back then, Lüling didn’t suspect just how difficult it would be to make her idea a reality. “I’ve spent several years getting to grips with the art of glass blowing and have spoken with many glass-blowers... I’ve tried working with several different artists, but there are only a few glass-blowers left that can produce freeblown glass.”

Every object is unique

This is exactly what Lüling’s designs needed to work. No two lights are alike and Lüling doesn’t specify precise forms. The designer only gives rough measurements so it’s impossible for the lights to be reproduced on an industrial scale. For her customers, who frequently order several lights at a time, she does try to produce lights that are fairly similar otherwise she would, as she puts it, “end up as a gallery owner”.

Lüling’s lights perfectly combine design and craftsmanship, resulting in fascinating objects that blur the lines between art and function. The glass-blowers have to understand what the designer wants and bring it to life with their skills. Lüling finally found her master craftsmen in the Czech Republic – in Bohemia to be precise – on her third try. “I feed them with colours and drawings, and sometimes even get stuck in myself, so that each piece comes out as I imagined it.”

Individual perfection

Even today, Simone Lüling is always on site when the glass-blowers, who work in teams, are working on new lights. “It’s so exciting because it’s such a complicated process,” explains the designer. While she’s on site, she can correct and perfect the lights or ask the master glass-blowers to put them back into the glass ovens (which can reach temperatures of up to 1200 degrees centigrade) because they’re not quite right yet, even if the craftsmen aren’t always thrilled about this! “My pieces are incredibly artistic and I like to use these brief moments in the process to exert my influence one final time.”

Her team of craftsmen are incredibly proud to produce these shimmering works of art. Not all of the specialists based in Bohemia can do what they do. “The most difficult part is the free-blowing,” explains Lüling, who has the utmost respect for the glass-blowers that perform this physically demanding work, particularly since she tried it for herself once. “I almost burnt my arm because the oven was so hot!” The artists take arge, compact drops of molten glass and use their blowing pipes to magically transform them into weightless, floating sculptures.

A light that shines from within

It’s not only the seemingly weightless, organic forms that make Lüling’s ELOA lights with their expressive names like Planetoide, Sirius or Starglow so unique. It’s also the colours, which are incredibly important to Lüling when she designs her lights. They shimmer, glow and shine from within. “There are few glass manufacturers that can produce glass for us in the correct, nuanced colours,” says the designer, who is now based in Berlin. The unique, multi-layered transparency that gives the ELOA lights their constantly changing appearance and magical effect can only be produced with the right glass.

„I feed the glass-blowers with colours and drawings so that each piece comes out just as I imagined it.“

Simone Lüling

A very special aura

“By hanging the lights, we can tell all sorts of stories,” says Lüling. “It’s an exciting and intensive process that I never get tired of. The lights are iridescent and multi-layered but never kitschy. How they look completely depends on whether the background is light or dark, whether the light comes from inside or outside, whether it’s night or day – their appearance is constantly changing and they’re almost like living objects for me. Each one is handmade, unique,” explains Simone Lüling. “I often give each light a nickname, like Zicke (bitch) or Schnüseli (honey), because they each have a little imperfection or something else that’s personal and unique to them. They also have their own aura resulting from the interplay of their form, their colour, their material and the light. And you wouldn’t believe how important this humaneness becomes for people around the world during difficult times. The kitchen is all about being human, spending time together and existential matters like eating, so I think that it’s the perfect place for objects like this.”

Text: Peter Würth

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