People / Meseme
London-based lighting designer-maker Riya Panchal and embroidery artist Nicole Chui have united their distinct, women-led practices to explore sculpture, textile, and craft through lighting. Together, they merge material-led, atmospheric illumination with expressive, intuitive hand embroidery. Riya treats light as an emotional, sculptural material, while Nicole’s embroidery captures identity and movement. Balancing restraint with spontaneity, and sculptural softness with movement in sport, this collaborative dialogue yields bespoke, hand-finished lighting objects that blur the boundaries between functional contemporary design and collectible craft.
MESMERIK Large Table Light
Riya Panchal × KPKinan Glass
Kira and I (Riya) developed MESMERIK over eighteen months while building our independent creative practices and balancing commission work that funded the collaboration. Every stage of the collection evolved around the realities of our specialist making processes. The proportions of the kiln-formed glass were shaped by Kira’s studio kiln capacity, firing schedules, and energy use, while the folded and turned metal components were developed around the tools and equipment available within the shared community workshop where my studio is based, enabling efficient small-batch production. Rather than designing first and manufacturing later, we allowed the materials, processes and constraints of our respective practices to inform one another. The result celebrates the specialist craft of kiln-formed glass – a process that is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain, while demonstrating how collaboration, shared expertise and resourcefulness can shape contemporary design.