Alex MacMaster has written that “Furniture should be as much an artistic statement as it is functional. I design to make a visual impact, to stimulate the imagination and to have an elegance that gives timeless appeal”.
With its strikingly beautiful, fulfilling and satisfying curves, the Lotus bud pendant light is artistic without a doubt. The pendant takes it form and shape from the lotus flower (Nelumbo nucifera) when it is in the natural process of blooming. The equation of the lotus bud with the light suggests spirituality. For it was the Buddha that achieved Enlightenment and it is the lotus flower that is associated with Buddhism, the teachings of the Buddha.
Because the bud is in the process of blooming, we are caught in a transitional moment of time with the pendant, on the journey towards the full opening of the flower. The bloom appears to be growing and glowing with the grow. There is stylisation in the presentation of the bloom: it is necessarily open to allow the light out. The lotus buds are usually closed.
This openness and pregnancy with light reinforces the symbolic dimensions of the conflation of the lotus with Enlightenment.
Beautifully pink and therefore warm with colour, and evocative of the beauty of the East with the stylised lotus bloom, the Lotus Pendant light is an intensely attractive object of art. With the difference in the diffusion of the lighting across the piece, there are different gradations of the pinkness which add sophistication and nuance to the aspects of the object. The regular patterning of the curves is very soothing and pleasing to the eye.
MacMaster Design creates unique wooden lighting and furniture, all handmade in Worcestershire, England, using highly sustainable materials. The wooden construction of the Lotus pendant light reinforces the message that natural is the most beautiful.
Nelumbo nucifera by Kawahara Keiga (1823 – 1829) Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
