Fluxwood focuses on offering bespoke lighting options, using high quality materials and craftsmanship. With over 30 years of experience in working with hardwood timbers, they deeply understand and appreciate the process, skillfully incorporating it into their designs. We recently had the opportunity to chat with Shari, the designer and director at Fluxwood, about the studio's design processes and future plans.

How did Fluxwood begin?

I grew up in a timber workshop with my family owning a production timber furniture business,
which over time grew into purely custom-made and designed furniture. My dad has been
working with timber for over 40 years, so that was a big influence on my design interests.
After studying Industrial Design I worked for a couple of design studios, though soon forming
a vision to start my own business that complemented the furniture workshop, though with
more of a product-based focus. After collaborating with a local lighting workshop, and a year
or so of design, prototyping and R&D I had a design direction to move ahead with and
formed Fluxwood (taking about 6 months to think of a brand name!)

What is the intention behind what you create?

Early on I focused on creating thoughtfully designed and minimal pieces that hopefully
survive through trends that come and go in interior design and lighting. Each solid timber
species we work with brings a beautiful fleck of character to each light fitting and my focus is
to really highlight timber as a beautiful natural material. It’s also important to me that the
lights look beautiful as well as being a very functional piece of design.

Walk us through the process behind creating a new lighting Design?

I do a lot of design exploration through hand sketching, constantly developing ideas to
explore over time. I try to find design directions for ideas that are a bit different for the
market, and different from our existing pieces as well. I develop any promising ideas through
CAD modelling, then looking at the possibilities of our own timber workshop as well as
collaborating with local fabricators for any other materials or custom components.

What is inspiring you?

I am always inspired by the timber species themselves, and seeing how we can bring a new
design to life. I love to follow architects and interior designers who are working on interesting
projects, particularly with natural materials or sustainability in mind.

What is important to you in a space/interior?

Lighting has such a powerful effect on creating the ambience and comfort in a space, and it’s
important that not only the fittings bring a style and presence to the room, but that the
lighting effect itself is of a high quality. This is particularly important for task lighting
applications like our linear pendants over a kitchen island. Also bringing in natural materials
like timber into a space makes you feel a sense of warmth and nature in such a
manufactured world.

What is on the horizon for you and Fluxwood?

Looking forward we are working on growing our range of lighting, exploring new design ideas
and the possibilities of growing the brand beyond lighting. Stay tuned!