ORRA
Lia Bruce
About Lia Bruce
My designs are unique works of art from the pure and spiritually-powerful salt of the Holy Land. My love affair with salt began when I was a child, inspired by my grandmother who sewed salt into little cotton bags to be worn as protective amulets.I studied architecture at the Technion in Haifa. I then earned a Bachelor degree in Fine Arts and a Master’s Degree in Industrial Design at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem.My interest with the mystical nature of salt grew as I collaborated with the Chemistry Institute at Hebrew University to reduce the environmental impact of salt-mining in the Dead Sea.For me, the combination of creative impulse, engineering challenge, and my desire to heal our environment was compelling. I sought solutions which would be practical, innovative, and inspiring. Saltware Design was born of this idea. Saltware Design combines her my talent with my expertise in architecture and industrial design to make all-natural, vegan, functional art.Each design is individually hand-crafted in my workshop.In connecting the dots in my own life, I create exquisite artefacts of profound spiritual, sustainable and healing significance.
About ORRA
ORRA is part of Saltware artefacts- Ceremonial and tableware I designed. It is made of pure salt from the Holy Land. It is handcrafted in a processbased on a unique and innovative eco-friendly low-energy technology. The whole approach of the design is eco friendly, using left-overs of the salt mining industry (Dead Sea Works). The product is all natural, and suggests a much bigger potential solution for replacement of polluting materials in industry.Shmita at its very basic, is the notion of respecting the land, of co-existence between humanity and nature and in particular the land of Israel where this mitzvah started.ORRA are designed candle holders for Shabbat. I named those candle holders ORRA ‘אוֹרָה’ which is the feminine form for LIGHT in Hebrew. I chose the feminine form as the candle holders are traditionally lit by mother of family. It also resembles the word AURA as the motherradiates light on her surroundings. The idea of the Torah and the Jewish culture is to spread its light and wisdom to the rest of the world.Hereby, sustainability is a core idea rooted in Judaism.ORRA (all of Saltware Design) tries to merge the cultural symbolism of salt, its purifying and sublime qualities with the earthy beauty of this unique white substance: Saltware is PURE.DESIGN. FROM HEAVEN-TO EARTH.* You can read more about me, about Saltware and the innovative process and about other unique artefacts I designed from salt, always trying to design objects that are meaningful, with spiritual significance. Thank you for the opportunity to submit my work.Lia
