Enlightened Art

Most people don't think of lighting as an investment, says Lisa Blalock. But she and her business partner, Paulo DeLima, combine fine art and practicality to create stunningly beautiful and valuable hand-blown-glass chandeliers, pendant lights, and wall sconces.

Their East Boston company, Bel Vetro - Italian for "beautiful glass"- creates custom pieces that are functioning art, not simply arresting fixtures.

"The client might want an original piece of artwork," says Blalock, "but also might need light in the dining room. We give them both."

Prices start at $400 for a simple pendant light. A large, complex chandelier can cost $8,000 or more.

"You start with a strong design concept," says Blalock. "It's the skill of the glass blower, the teamwork, and critical timing that makes a piece successful. What we do with glass is as much science as art."

In the studio, Blalock, protected by thickly padded heat-resistant gloves, forks a molten ingot of glass from the white-hot kiln to DeLima, who takes the pass, and with a delicate balance, puffs and twists it at the end of a long pipe. They repeat the dance several times until a glowing, shapeless glob is transformed into a lacelike wing that will become part of a larger chandelier.

They use classical Venetian techniques to create their decidedly contemporary designs. "We really have no typical piece," says DeLima. "We try to match the client's vision."

Bel Vetro's commission to produce 19 fixtures for The Center at Westwoods, a spiritual and holistic education wellness center in Westwood, defines their distinctive blend of art and light. Each piece dovetails with the architecture but also adds color and creates a mood. "The art not only needed to function in the sense of creating light to see," says Blalock, "but also to bring a quality of light that aids the healing atmosphere."

Their custom designs can have many starting points. "A client, whether a homeowner or a corporation, might have color as the driving need or some existing interior design to coordinate with," says Blalock. She and DeLima have produced both elaborate pieces that are more sculpture than fixture and more straightforward pieces with function the priority.

Prior to founding Bel Vetro, Blalock, a one-time ballet dancer, was co-owner of a company that did advertising and editorial photography for the performing arts. She learned how to work with glass at Urban Glass in New York City, the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina, and The Studio in Corning, New York.

DeLima, a former operator of a local glass-blowing facility, has a fine arts degree from Massachusetts College of Art and has trained in Venice. He also honed his techniques at The Studio in Corning.

"We were hearing from people that there was not a lot of hand-blown fine-art lighting," Blalock says. "People love our work because they know no one else is going to have it, and it was designed for them and their space."

BEL VETRO 35 Saratoga Street, East Boston, 617-823-9611, belvetro.biz

John Budris is the editor of the online magazine Hall of Fame. E-mail him at jbudris@hofmag.com.