FABULOUS GLASS PLEASURE
Isabel Hamm
November 2007, Zurich
Chandeliers are fascinating and alluring: glistening chandeliers stand for opulence, lavishness and splendor. Not every chandelier, however, has to be baroque and majestic. This becomes patently evident in Isabel Hamm’s work. For some years, she has injected the chandelier with new ideas and brought it to modern times with her contemporary interpretations. The Cologne-based ceramicist’s fragile creations are brightening up worldwide fashion boutiques, foyers and private houses. She designs her chandeliers made from industrial glass to her clients’ wishes and specifications. Isabel Hamm suspends glass rods in a stainless steel cylinder, thus creating a sparkling crystal-flower bouquet. Then again she has bamboo-shaped glass pipes hanging from a ceiling-mounted lightbox or shapes glass rods like icicles for a table lamp. “A chandelier is always a statement,” says Isabel Hamm.
With the opening of her design studio in Cologne in 1998, the trained ceramicist devoted herself to glass. Isabel Hamm was first noted for her filigreed glass series; the first commissions for chandeliers soon followed. Today, private and industrial clients alike value the skillfully crafted perfection of her products.
