Candle Brick
Candle Brick is a candle holder, hand made with rough craft qualities and a raw down to earth character when brought into the home. They can be used individually or assembled into sculptural compositions reminiscent of architectural fragments that bring striking candle light to a table top, shelf or bar.
This new studio edition by Sebastian Bergne is the culmination of a period of research into this most sustainable and culturally rich building material. With Bergne’s distinctive approach, Candle Brick challenges what we consider to be humble or noble, for inside the home or outside construction.
Bergne’s approach to the project started with the local (London) production resource. The idea to value and develop the use of this traditional large scale craft process was key. After a long gestation period came the Candle Brick, a simple and enjoyable household object inspired by the brick itself. It draws attention to historic crafts within traditional building materials and opens the potential of alternative revenue streams for normally very categorised manufacturing.
The Brick is hand made in large quantity using traditional techniques in a historic factory on the edge of London. Locally sourced clay is fashioned into shape using a simple wooden mould. After the bricks have been dried for two weeks in carefully controlled conditions they are fired to around a thousand degrees over 24hrs. Three days of cooling follow before the kiln can finally be unpacked.
Variations in colour and texture are due to slight fluctuations in temperature within the large kiln and the hand made nature of the process. As a result, each brick is clearly unique and will improve in time by showing age and wear on its beautifully uneven surface.
The ‘First Fifty’ preview was launched in collaboration with The Art Design Lab, 2020
Studio edition of 500 Bricks.