Thus far in our week-long celebration of Valentine’s Day we’ve featured an erotically inspired chair, a handful of intriguingly heart-shaped levers and hooks, and a luxurious free-standing hammock. Seems to me that it’s time for a little mood lighting. So in the spirit of casting things in an alluring light, I present Love Letter Lights by Stephanie Forsythe & Todd MacAllen for Molo. More of a perpetually evolving sculpture in lumens than a typical light piece, Love Letter has such a slew of innovative features that I best stop jabbering and get to it…

Love Letter with marble base. Designed by Todd MacAllen and Stephanie Forsythe for Molo.

In conceptualizing Love Letter, designers Forsythe and MacAllen wanted to create an homage to the beloved Arco Lamp by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni (1962), but wished to avoid a piece that was merely imitative. So they began with a kind of historical artifact of Arco-the actual “castoff” marble core that was an habitual byproduct of its manufacture (the hole left in the marble base was intended to accommodate a broomstick, thus making transport of the 100+ lb. fixture possible).

Love Letter with wool felt rock base. Designed by Todd MacAllen and Stephanie Forsythe for Molo.

Arco Lamp. Designed by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni for Flos.

So begins the series of resemblances/clever alterations that makes this piece a true homage: while Arco’s base conveyed solidity and stability, Love Letter’s suggests sustainability and intelligent use of materials; while Arco’s telescopic stem conveyed a utilitarian geometry (at eight feet long, its great arch allowed a floor lamp to function as a ceiling lamp), Love Letter’s pliable central shaft evokes the organicism of a tangle of wispy branches; and while Arco’s polished aluminum shade promised an intensely focused dome of light, Love Letter’s ethereal translucent envelopes offer a softly glowing ambient light and a living palette for personal expression.

This last feature is the piece’s show-stopping closing act and part two of Love Letter’s double meaning: with the easy application of a humble dry erase marker, users can write or draw directly on the light source, thus creating a signature imprint that not only tells your beloved that “you ate the plums she was saving for breakfast,” but also causes slight alterations in the play of shadow upon light, much as a silhouette passing through a lantern’s glow, or the merest stir of breath on a candle flame.

As if Love Letter part I weren’t sufficient, Forsythe and MacAllen have recently released Love Letter the sequel (pictured above). This time, the homage goes to Ingo Maurer, and the re-claimed artifact is wool felt rocks (also a byproduct, produced during the manufacture of polishing wheels for optical lenses). Though the base is different and the note of thanks goes to a different designer, the Maurer-inspired version boasts the same envelope-shaped light source, the same luminescent canvas for scribes and scribblers alike.