The simple act of folding – paper, fabric, the petals of a flower – serves as inspiration for Alkaline’s newest pendant light, aptly titled Gathered.
WORDS Gina Dionisio PHOTOS Supplied
Founded in 2021 by Chelsea and Andrew Makin, the design studio produces sculptural yet functional objects that explore texture, geometry and balance through sustainable thinking and experimentation.
Designed by Chelsea, Gathered exemplifies the brand’s approach to creating tactile, collectable designs shaped by material play.
The pendant’s design sits between the botanical and the architectural. Taking its name from the act of folding – the gathering of pleats in cloth, the gathering of petals around a stem – Gathered fans outward from a central point in deep, radiating flutes that cast their own shadow play, depending on the angle of light.
Sandstone, Harvest, Maroon and Powder Blue.
Like Alkaline’s WAYST pendant, Gathered doesn’t shy away from the marks of its making. The surface carries the horizontal texture of a 3D-printed original – a record of the process, preserved in the casting rather than sanded away. Chelsea began with a 3D-printed prototype but, confronting the material limitations of printed plastic near heat, chose to scale up the original form, make a mould and cast it in resin and gypsum instead. The result is a shade with the surface memory of its digital origin but the weight, opacity and permanence of a cast object.
Gathered is available in four colourways, each with a colour-matched textile cord. alkaline-shop.com | info@alkaline-shop.com
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