Some time back, just after Brooklyn Design, I profiled Hudson Furniture, Inc. and Owner/Designer Barlas Baylar, whose king-size beds of solid wood provide an expansive and luxurious place of repose, while espousing a sustainable aesthetic (the pieces are constructed of “domestically-sourced materials from either salvaged trees or wind/storm damaged trees”). How was I to know my praise of Baylar’s work opened up some old wounds and recent controversy (see “Furniture Fight Breaks Out in MePa”).

Atlantis Chandelier. Designed by Barlas Baylar.

Though our readers remained blissfully unaware of the squabble—largely owing to the tact and civility of the designer who brought it to our attention—full disclosure, and an occasional roguish appetite for stirring things up, requires I mention it here, lest anyone out there feels the same way about Baylar’s resplendent and evocative Atlantis Chandelier, created in collaboration with Nicholas Terzani of Terzani USA. Thankfully, the earlier spat revolved around Baylar’s work with wood, so hopefully no one out there will object to this elegant lightpiece concocted of glass, metal, and nickel chain—four miles of the latter, to be exact, since that’s what creates the drooping, draped aspect that characterizes the piece, which looks like it may once have illumined the ballroom of the Titanic. Baylar says he wanted to “subvert the traditional connotations associated with metal by using it to create something soft, organic and flowing.” Consider the objective met. When I first laid my eyes on Atlantis I thought it made of some diaphanous, gauzy fabric, spun from the lair of an albino spider, perhaps. So I was pleasantly surprised to discover the prevailing material was anything but. No doubt Baylar chose the medium not only for the look but also for its rare textural appeal, since draped metal appeals to the sensation of touch in a most unusual way.

In the presence of Atlantis, I’m reminded of how a delicate necklace of precious metal feels in the palm of the hand, how the individual links form a collective that gives it a surprising softness. Baylar’s Atlantis achieves a singular aesthetic by capturing the essence of this transformation.