Our Story
Avant Lamps is a product of my fondness for artful objects that have beauty, character and longevity built in. I have always admired artists and craftspeople who made such things and wanted to do it myself. These lamps are the result of those efforts. I hope you will find them attractive, unique and built to last.
My background
My name is Liba Brent and I am the founder of Avant Lamps, based in Cross Plains, WI. Although I have always loved visual arts, my decision to produce designer lighting is relatively recent. I am a sociologist by training, with a long career in international development. I led development projects funded by IFAD that focused on supporting farmers and rural women in remote regions of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan to create businesses in fiber processing including Cashmere People Yarns. I also produced documentaries and publications about these projects.
Inventing Avant Lamps
During the past few years I took a break from development work, partially due to Covid, and began pursuing my lifelong interest in arts and crafts. I have always loved lamps, both antique and contemporary, and decided it was time to make the leap from admiring lamps to making them. After exploring different materials I discovered fiberglass which quickly became my favorite medium. After numerous experiments I developed a new technology for fusing fiberglass, resin and translucent prints to create lamps that embody art. They have the brilliant colors and pearlescent translucency of stained glass but unlike cloth, glass or paper shades they are washable and durable.
The Art
The images I use are inspired by my passion for art and nature. My first lamp designs featured fractal graphics I learned to create. Later I began working with nature photography, including photos of our wooded backyard, to produce lamps in the Nature Themes Collection. I also started learning digital graphics, and working with images chosen by clients. Each image requires many hours, sometimes days of work to make it suitable for a lamp shade that meets my aspiration to light someone’s home and also their senses.
More to come…
I enjoy experimenting with fiberglass and graphic design and the Avant Lamps Collection is growing. You will find new lamps on my website each month, some in limited editions. My goal is to create a diverse collection of designs and styles that appeal to customers with different preferences.
