Light Line

Lead Designers Mary Wallis

Entry Description

Light Line explores the 3-dimensional possibilities of neon, an industrial material that taps into designer Mary Wallis' academic background in science. A smooth dimmer switch affords control of neon's light-producing chemical reaction, making one feel like a modern-day alchemist. The Light Line table lamp is composed of a neon cold cathode bulb and a base machined from a solid block of brass.

Born in Australia, Mary lived in London, Edinburgh and Cambridge before moving to New York. She studied design at Parsons the New School for Design, and the Pratt Institute.

Her work is modern and forward-thinking, while preserving the craft of hand-bent neon. Her love of taking a material or familiar object and translating it into a new context is evident throughout her work. Her lighting collection also explores the explores the theme of beauty in fragmentation – “I’m interested in reconstructing the broken, and making it more beautiful than it was originally”.