Light as exploration. Light as art. Light as expression. Light as life. These are the concepts behind LOREKFORM, a Brooklyn-based studio led by Erin Lorek. Erin’s background is in entertainment lighting and her work at LOREKFORM is informed and inspired by her experience as a designer, gaffer and rigger. With this new project, Erin explores light’s expressive nature through materiality and form, creating simple pieces from honest materials: clay, wax, sand, iron and glass.
Erin’s process begins with a slab of wet clay. She impresses a repeating texture onto the clay, using fabric, a screen or other texture-rich materials. This clay is then turned into iron through a back-and-forth mold making process that utilizes wax, sand, and of course, iron. Erin pushes these materials to their limits at each step, causing irregularities to develop in the pattern. For example, if the clay is allowed to dry, it will crack and split. If wax is poured too hot, it can create a random swirling pattern. Iron, if poured too cold, leaves behind gaping craters. These disruptions to the original impression give the finished iron mold a narrative all its own, unique and unrepeatable. Lastly, in the hot shop, when the glass is finally poured, the resulting lens is perfectly imperfect, collecting and refracting light to tell the story of the mold and its maker.
The story is one of constant evolution...
From the beginning, LOREKFORM has focused on sustainability and life cycles. The studio’s entire process uses only five materials, all of which are re-used, recyclable or both. The textures used in the clay impressions come from existing materials, already a part of our environment. The tools and molds created by the studio can be used time and time again. Erin hopes to create a library of these tools to allow for each one’s unique story to be shared and brought to life in different installations all around the world. The tools change and break down over time, creating new marks with each use. Once a tool needs to be retired, it is sent to the iron furnace and re-cast into something new. Waste is minimal and the story is one of constant evolution and regeneration.
The studio’s debut collection, IRON + GLASS, experiments with organic, refractive textures to create unique surfaces that allow ambient light to react in expected and unexpected ways. This series features two lighting objects, Beacon and Surround, both of which place LOREKFORM’s signature iron-cast lenses within the framework of modern modularity.
LOREKFORM is the ultimate fusion of design and story and we are thrilled to welcome Erin and her collaborators to the CACHA community.
Shop the Iron + Glass Collection
