Water Colors Glass Light Fixtures

Architect Larissa Sand was designing the San Francisco restaurant B44 when she faced the problem of imparting deep color to glass light fixtures that she was making.

“You can’t tint Pyrex; you can’t get brilliant colors. What we had in this restaurant was a modern, very mechanical language. We wanted strong color that wasn’t art glass,” said Sand, principal of South Park Fabricators, the San Francisco firm that designs and makes furniture, lighting and other architectural elements.

The solution? Colored water. “We started with shields of colored liquid, a double wall of glass where the liquid floats in between,” she said. She settled on orange and blue because “they complement each other and have the most graphic presence. But you could have everything from pink to green.”

That’s when the fun begins, said James Pucci, showroom manager of 100watt network, a New York lighting store that distributes B44 lamps. “It’s like making an Easter egg. You buy the lamp, you stand there like a mad scientist mixing food coloring and water, you pour the fluid in. A little doughnut-shaped cap keeps it from evaporating. Larissa has formulas for colors--three drops of one, two drops of another--just ask and we can get it for you.”

The lamps are available in two configurations: a hanging pendant ($1,424) and a table model ($1,545). They are shipped unfilled, with blue and orange tints included. For more information call (888)-477-9288; https://www.100watt.net..