Experimentation intrigues us to no end – especially when test tubes come into play. In high school, we used test tubes in chem lab where there were always rules involved. These days, test tubes come in handy as a source for creativity in lamp design. To be more specific, we’re talking about Maria, a layered chandelier that Pani Jurek designed for Gang Design.

Maria chandelier. Designed by Pani Jurek. Manufactured by Gang Design.

One Light Bulb, Many Test Tubes: The Maria Chandelier by Pani Jurek of Gang Design

The suspended ceiling lamp is lit by a large central light source surrounded by a single row or a double row of glass test tubes encased in a circular wooden frame. The lamp can be separated into two different round chandeliers of one layer, large and small, or kept as a double layer unit. Each test tubes is unplugged, allowing you to choose what its fill may be. Leave them empty or fill the tubes with sand, colorful water, beads and even fresh flowers spilling out of them. Whatever your preference, the Polish team at Gang Design offers limitless design in the Maria chandelier.

As Gang Design describes, the Maria chandelier is inspired by the Art Deco era.  To be precise, the Polish duo describes Jurek’s design saying how its “shape refers to the traditional forms of Art Deco, and the name is an allusion to a person (by the name of) Marie Sklodowska Curie.” Ms. Curie was a physicist and chemist who did her research on radioactivity, and would later be the first person to ever win two Nobel prizes. Also from Warsaw – like Gang Design – she was the absolute motivation behind the curious name given to the Marie chandelier.

Lending itself to Polish history and strong women in the sciences, Pani Jurek of Gang Design created the Marie chandelier as a fresh way to bring out quintessential beauty of test tubes in a modern chandelier design.

About the Designer: Gang Design‘s Pani Jurek was born in 1979. After getting her degree in painting under the supervision of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Poland, Ms. Jurek came to understand light “and the relationship between things that arise and their users”, as she calls it. Alongside Edyta Oldak, the duo came up with Gang Design that represents their partnership, or association, that is based just outside of Warsaw – creating everything from lighting to furniture, graphics and various other products.