Banded Orb Pendants

Their entire line of hand blown glass pendants, wall sconces and table lamps shows off Caleb Siemon’s signature aesthetic of thick glass and exciting colors.

Read on to find out how Caleb & Carmen became one of Southern California’s most exciting new product designers.

Caleb Siemon

Caleb Siemon

Most glassblowers aren’t born artists,” says Caleb Siemon. “They’re born pyromaniacs.” Son of a jeweler, he grew up making things with his hands, got hooked on glass in high school, and honed his craft at the Rhode Island School of Design. He then set out for Murano, Italy, with a backpack, a few words of Italian, and the hope of an apprenticeship with renowned master glass sculptor Pino Signoretto. The maestro ignored him for a month, while Caleb attentively sketched his work and tried not to get in the way. Eventually an apprenticeship evolved.

Caleb spent two years in the Muranese studio with the glassmaker versatile enough to produce both enormous sculptures and delicate goblets. Here, he was encouraged to “steal with his eyes.” Caleb’s style shows the influence of his early tutor, coupled with an unabashed passion for the medium. “The transparency and fluidity of the material makes it unique,” he says. “I always start with an idea, but have learned to remain flexible to allow for the natural qualities of the glass”.

Caleb returned to Southern California in 1999 and constructed his own Italian-style studio. From furnace heights and bench design, to a system where each piece is created closely with a team of assistants, his methods reflect his Muranese immersion. Loris Zanon, Pino Signoretto’s master coldworker, traveled from Murano to guide the construction of Caleb’s coldshop and pass on the techniques of glass carving and polishing.

From the Scandinavian glass tradition, Caleb has developed an affection for simple forms, taking advantage of gravity and centrifugal force in design. By pairing these approaches to glassmaking, he has developed a signature aesthetic that reflects the evolved detail of the Muranese and balance and restraint of the Scandinavians. Caleb continues to invite international glass workers to his studio to share their techniques with the next generation of glass artists. His work exhibits internationally and is featured in galleries around the world.

Lattimo Pendants

Carmen Salazar

Carmen Salazar

While her husband has binged on glass with a singular focus, his wife and partner, Carmen Salazar, has sipped from many ponds. Sculptor, metalworker, architect, botanist, scavenger, and conservationist, Carmen is a curious hybrid of urban and rural. She brings the influence of many streams to her work in the glass shop. She is a recipe that calls for equal parts concrete and pasture, glass and steel and rough-hewn beams. Carmen grew up shuttling between Washington DC and the family farm in Augusta, West Virginia. In college, she began to cultivate a love for metal, glass, and the vegetal world. Carmen left the Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in sculpture and art history, but also a peripatetic interest in reshaping the larger natural world.

In 1997, she drove to San Francisco where she spent two years working for a land artist, metal sculptors, horticulturalists, and glass blowers. In 1999, she moved to Orange County to help Caleb build his first shop. “I thought I was just going down for a month or so” she says, “but here we are, a decade later.” The intersection of her diverse interests led her to the Southern California Institute of Architecture in 2001.

After receiving her masters in architecture at SCI-Arc in Los Angeles, Carmen worked in the high end residential realm and then on the design team for a large scale public park. With her skills in architecture, interior and landscape design, the pair have embarked on an aesthetic leap forward.

They are now executing large scale custom projects and installations while maintaining the studio’s carefully cultivated quality and visual signature. “I have a somewhat less controlled aesthetic than Caleb. Maybe it comes from working with so many plants.” says Carmen, “I love to scavenge pieces from the studio, tests and such, and re-purpose them. Caleb always looks like he has a tinge of fear when I start experimenting in the studio, like, ‘gosh, I hope she doesn’t blow us up today.’”

Happy Kiss Pendants

And with our first ‘Save the Date’ invitation received, we thought it appropriate to share engagement and wedding photos that were taken at our downtown lighting showroom throughout the past year.

Courtesy of Redwall Photo

When the phone calls from photographers and happy couples first started rolling in, our staff was surprised to hear people wanted to use our showroom as the backdrop for their engagement or wedding photos.

But now that we’ve seen the result, we understand why! Our three-story (plus rooftop) showroom is full of crevices and crannies that make for uniquely ‘illuminating’ photographs.

Our showroom and rooftop garden are always available for photography during normal business hours, so lovebirds and aspiring photographers alike, feel free to stop by!

But please make sure and share the photos with us – we’ll need them to cheer us up we get snow in May. (Chicago, you know it will happen.)

Browse through the gallery below to see more engagement/wedding photos taken at the Lightology showroom!

Using LED lighting technology paired with sleek design and feather-light adjustability, Koncept fixtures, available at Lightology, are used in trend-setting interior designs and have earned recognition for excellence in both design and energy efficiency.

The Equo LED Desk Lamp

The Equo™ desk and floor lamps use a counterweight design that requires only one finger to adjust its position. The special neck joint maintains the head’s tilt as the arm swings up or down, while brightness is controlled by sliding or touching a finger along the touchstrip. To date, it has earned 10 awards, including the coveted Red Dot Award for design excellence in 2011.

The Z-Bar is available in a variety of versions.

The Koncept Lighting flagship series, Z-Bar™, is super-adjustable, with a three-bar design that can spin in its socket, sweep side to side and rotate around the end of the arm to point in any direction. Various versions of the Z-bar are featured in the Chicago Museum of Sciences Smart Home, numerous movies and TV shows and at McDonalds headquarters in Australia. The Z-bar has also earned recognition from publications such as the International Design Magazine and Time Magazine.

The Mosso LED Desk Lamp.

The Mosso™ Desk Lamp features the latest in LEDs and an LED head that not only swivels up and down, but also twirls a full 360 degrees, making it super easy to bring energy efficient, dimmable, natural looking light right wherever it’s needed.

Lightology, the largest online retailer of contemporary lighting is offering an energy saving giveaway to kick off 2012!

We’re betting our design-minded friends out there have a few tips and tricks on how to contribute to the energy-efficient movement, even if it is as simple as changing a light bulb!

When you share your energy-saving tip/trick on Lightology’s Facebook or Twitter pages, you will automatically be entered to win one of the GREENEST tickets in town: A Sero Desk Lamp from Cerno Lighting!

The Sero uses only 6.3 watts and is fully dimmable!

 Cerno, a lighting manufacturer that ONLY uses LED technology, has received praise and recognition for its well-designed LED table lamps, pendants, floor lamps and wall sconces.

The Sero LED Desk Lamp is slender and clean, using only 6.3 watts with a High CRI of 82 and a 3000K color temperature, the same as a standard halogen bulb.

To enter, post your easy idea on how to save energy in your home on the Lightology Facebook Wall or send us a tweet to @lightology!

All original ideas will count as 1 entry, and the winner will be randomly selected on February 1, 2012.

To enter, take a photo of your Thanksgiving Dining Decor (family members not necessary!) that also shows off your lighting.

Like Us on Facebook and Post Your Pic on Our Page!

Or Follow Us on Twitter and Tweet Us your Photo!

A winner will be selected Monday, November 28th at 5 pm and will win a Koncept Generation 3 Z-Bar Desk Lamp, a $275 value!

The award-winning Koncept Z-Bar LED table lamp ($275 value) uses only 10.5 watts and is fully adjustable, with rotating arms that move to your exact desired position. The touchstrip allows for easy dimming with a simple slide of the finger. The perfect gift – or reward for your hard work this Thanksgiving!

Send in the photo of your Thanksgiving Dining Room TODAY for a chance to win!

Top Gift Ideas

KONCEPT LIGHTING

Z-Bar® Desk Lamp features the award-winning three-bar design for ultimate reach and flexibility.

The all-LED Generation 3 line from Koncept features enhancements to the multi-award winning fixtures like the Z-bar and Equo. The innovations of Generation 3 include better quality and brightness by equalizing the LED light distribution and a touchstrip that can be smoothly dimmed with the swipe of a finger, or instantly brightened or dimmed with a simple touch.

CERNO LIGHTING

Another brand consisting entirely of LED fixtures, Cerno, is relatively young to the lighting scene. Initially turning heads with their multi-purpose wall sconce turned reading light, Cubo, Cerno solidified their position in the design community with high quality contemporary desk lamps, floor lamps and LED pendants.

ARTEMIDE LIGHTING

Tolomeo has become an icon in the lighting industry, popular across the world and even on display in museums.

Artemide, an icon in the lighting industry, has their top-selling Tizio and Tolomeo lamps: a classic gift that will never go out of style.

EDGE LIGHTING NIGHT OWL READING LIGHT

The Edge Lighting Night Owl series uses a direct beam of LED light, ideal as a bedside reading light that won’t disturb your partner. The wall-mounted Night Owl and Night Owl 3 are available in plug-in and canopy versions with a variety of finishes. The Night Owl 3 also comes with a high/low switch and adjustable beamspread.

LIGHTOLOGY COLLECTION

3POD floor lamp features a black fabric shade and a black carbon steel finish for a classic look that's equally durable.

Lightology offers its own line of fixtures, the Lightology Collection, which represents the highest pinnacle of design and the latest technological developments.

The Holiday Sale lasts until November 30, 2011.

1)    Look for the Lighting Facts Label

Sponsored by the Department of Energy, the Lighting Facts Label is the ‘nutrition facts label’ for LEDs, providing a quick summary of product performance data.

By introducing transparency to the lighting supply chain, the label guards against exaggerated claims and helps ensure a satisfactory experience for lighting buyers.

Luminaire manufacturers who take the pledge agree to use the label to disclose performance results in five areas—lumens, efficacy, watts, correlated color temperature (CCT), and color rendering index (CRI)—as measured by the industry standard for testing photometric performance, IES LM-79-2008.

2)    Color (Correlated Color Temperature)

Students Visit the Color Temperature Wall, which shows all the different colors of light, at the Lightology Showroom

Color Temperature measures light color.

• “Cool” colors have higher Kelvin temperatures (3600–5500 K).
• “Warm” colors have lower color temperatures (2700–3500 K).

These colors are charted on the Kelvin scale for you to use when choosing a light source. Many LEDs are developed with a color temperature of 2700K, which is the same as a standard incandescent, or 3000K, which matches the color of Halogen light.

It is important to match the color temperature in all light sources when designing a space, otherwise the differences might be quite noticeable.

3)   Quality (Color Rendering Index)

This picture shows that the colors on the tissue box look better under LEDs with a higher CRI. All three tissue boxes are lit under the same Color Temperature, only the CRI is different.

CRI measures color accuracy, or more specifically, it is the effect of the lamp’s light spectrum on the color appearance of objects.

Based on a scale from 1-100 (100 being the best), a low CRI LED will make colors in fabrics, paint and people look duller, less vibrant. It’s a great idea to place color samples from your project underneath LEDs with differing CRIs to help determine which LED looks best.

Typically, a CRI in the mid-70s and up is acceptable for commercial applications. For residential applications, A CRI of 80 or above is preferable.

4)    Lumens, Watts and Lumens per Watt

This chart shows the comparison in efficacy between an incandescent, fluorescent and LED light source.

Lumens measures light output. The higher the number, the more light is emitted.

Watts are ONLY a measurement of the energy required to light the product. The lower the wattage, the less energy used.

Lumens per Watt is a way to measure efficiency, similar to the Miles Per Gallon you get in your car. The higher this number is, the more efficient your product is.

5)    Thermal Management

The Scope LED Head uses aluminum as a heatsink to pull heat away from the LED, making sure it maintains the 50,000 hour lifespan.

Heat plays a major factor in the lifespan of an LED. LEDs are a condensed point source that gets very hot, so an aluminum heatsink is necessary to dissipate the heat over a larger surface and keep the junction (where the LED meets the circuit board) temperature below 80°C.

Running an LED just a few degrees too warm can shorten the lifespan of an LED up to 50%! A good rule of thumb is in an open air environment, the LED needs 2.5 square inches of heatsink for every 1 watt.

Use Edge Lighting’s Scope LED as an example. At 9 watts, the scope needs 22 sq. inches of heatsink. The cylindrical fixture is 2.24”W x 4”H. You use the formula below to determine the square inches of the aluminum fixture (the heatsink).

Width x π x Height

2.24 x 3.14 x 4 = 28 square inches

The Scope LED fixture exceeds the required amount of heatsink to guarantee LED lifespan. Keep in mind that enclosed fixtures, like recessed LEDs can require around 15 square inches per 1 watt, so the heatsinks on these fixtures will be much larger, but still hidden from view.

Download a PDF of our Lamp Comparison Chart to see some of the basic differences between lighting options available to you.

To enter, simply ‘Like’ the Lightology Facebook Page and leave a comment, or follow Lightology on Twitter and tweet to @lightology why you should win! All retail orders placed on the Lightology website from July 1-18, 2011 will also be entered into the drawing.

The Arden Floor Fan from Fanimation has walnut legs and an Oil Rubbed Bronze finish, recalling the clean and classic lines of an architect’s tripod. Complementing transitional as well as classic décor, the Arden has a three-speed rotary switch, providing a trio of comfort levels.

The Marea Ceiling Fan provides functional art on the ceiling! Circulating air with its distinctive, acrylic-frosted blade, the Oil Rubbed Bronze finish coordinates beautifully with similar finishes in the house. The Marea comes equipped with a hand-held remote and a wall-mount control. The three forward and reverse speeds provide just the right amount of comfort year-round. The 42-inch blade sweep is ideal for bedrooms, living spaces, and sunrooms.

Visit Lightology.com to see the large variety of ceiling fans, perfect for keeping cool and saving energy this summer.

The Lightology Summer Ceiling Fan giveaway ends July 18, 2011. A winner will be randomly selected and contacted on July 19, 2011.

Lightology.com is giving you the chance to win $300 in Hinkley Outdoor Lighting!
No matter if it’s a patio, a pathway or a tiny patch of grass — everyone deserves a well-lit outdoor space they can enjoy.

To enter the contest, send a photo of your outdoor space in need of new lighting to marketing(at)lightology(dot)com or post it to the Lightology Facebook wall, along with a few words about how you would enjoy your newly lit open-air escape! All submitted photos are posted on the Lightology Facebook Page (http://www.facebook.com/lightology).

The photo with the most ‘Likes’ on the Lightology Facebook Page at 11:59 PM on June 8, 2011 will win a $300 retail gift card to spend on the Hinkley Outdoor Lighting fixtures of their choice!

Shop Hinkley outdoor lighting on Lightology.com to see the large variety of fixtures that will not only define your outdoor space but also add charm and ambiance. Use outdoor wall sconces to illuminate architectural elements for added drama; or define an intimate sitting area with a soft, exterior pendant light.

Landscape lighting can also be used to develop a safe pathway or create focal points. Use recessed garden lights for glowing gorgeous flowers. Or, create texture by using a spotlight to accent bushes and shrubs.

Lightology offers a vast array of Hinkley outdoor lighting in contemporary and traditional lighting styles. Send your photo today to marketing(at)lightology(dot)com and ‘Like’ the Lightology Facebook Page to enter to win your $300 in Hinkley Outdoor Lighting!

See the Rules and Regulations for the contest.

Marty Lescht ASID and AIA (PA) of Lescht and Associates, is an Interior Architect and Designer based out of Chicago but known nationwide for his almost 40 year resume, touting such greats as Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises (Hub 51, Tru, Everest) to luxury hotels and the restoration of the Wrigley Building. Marty often pairs with Lightology for his projects, most recently to design Karyn’s On Green, an all-vegan restaurant looking for a design to match its chic, eco-friendly menu.

“I carved the ceiling tiles to look like branches,” says Lescht. “And we used the Saggina Chandelier because of its likeness to the branches of a tree. With the lights, you get a starlight effect, making the whole chandelier really play off the branch carvings and everything that I did with the ceiling.”

What was your vision for the space?  
Because we live in Chicago and it’s dark so much of the year, and I wanted to create a feeling more like Malibu or Santa Monica — very cool and natural, with an outdoor feeling. When you walk into Karyn’s On Green, you get the feeling that the food and the experience will be fresh and clean. I create unique, interesting designs, but I like working with neutrals and am influenced by nature. This way, the people and the food really get to be the star and enhance the ambiance of the restaurant.

How do you incorporate lighting into your designs?
I don’t incorporate lighting; it is the main factor in my projects. I could spend a million dollars on a project and if it’s not lit properly — it’s a waste. Dimming is incredibly important so you can change lighting effects from day to night, seasonally, etc. And for this project, all the lighting is eco-friendly, to coordinate with the all-vegan menu.