Handmade Lighting and Wall Sculptures Cast in Bronze, Brass and Plaster by Jess Wheeler
“I have the most incredible view from my workshop,” says the maker Jess Wheeler, who relocated from London to rural Wales three years ago. “The first candle sconce I made was covered in brass oak leaves,” she recalls. Photograph by Lottie Hampson. Jess Wheeler beside the oak that inspired her first candle sconce. I wanted to fill the dining room with candlelight to set a soft and ambient mood inside and create a sense of occasion.” Jess Wheeler’s ivy sconce (£580). “The way they make the shadows dance across the wall is just magical,” she says. Jess’s flower candle holders (£80 each). Back in the studio, she sets about transforming them into “everlasting sculptures” cast in an array of materials including brass, bronze, and plaster. Jess at work in her rural studio. Photograph by Lottie Hampson. The lightbulb moment of seeing a shape in nature and imagining it as a wall light or chandelier is the part of the process I... ...find most satisfying that realization that a beautiful natural form can be made into an everlasting sculpture which also has a function in the home Jess’s bronze rhubarb wall light (£1850). Jess’s bronze savoy cabbage leaf light (£1450). Jess founded her studio in 2021 and now employs a small team of makers and an apprentice Each design in plaster and brass is made... Photograph by Lottie Hampson. ...by hand by a small team of artisans while her bronze designs are wrought at a local foundry using an age old lost wax technique Jess Wheeler’s chard plaster wall light (£660), “a stand-alone artwork which happens to light a room.” Jess’s cavolo plaster wall sculpture (£495). Jess studied illustration at the Edinburgh College of Art before she began working as a set designer and art director... ...in London often employing flowers soil and grass to create biophilic sets for clients including Aesop Alex Eagle and Fortnum Mason Photograph by Lottie Hampson. A chard plater cast in progress. Jess’s brass Christmas decorations on red ribbon: Alchemilla, Holly, and Ivy (£20 each). The studio’s brass napkin rings (£20 each). Jess’s plaster cast leaf decorations (£35 each) are cast from a range of local leaves, including Chestnut, Piggyback, Mulberry, Ivy Birdsfoot, Hibiscus, Oak, and Cabbage. I aim for my work to illustrate the fragility of the natural world and to encourage a change in perspective of my subject matter.”