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added Markowitz.
In addition to the pendants, the wall sconce takes the
two petal shapes and intersects them face to face to create
a surface, which reflects the light, and a smaller shroud, which

conceals the light source.
In this piece, Markowitz expresses the intersectional
quality of the design logic by showing the petal components
passing through each other. This also creates opportunities to
conceal wall mounting and wiring. Phantom Hands produced
two wall sconces, a hardwired version and a plug-in version.
One sconce was made with a blend of cherry and maple to make the five pieces. In total (and including wastage), 0.77
match the pendant lights, and one sconce entirely in maple to cubic meters of American cherry, maple and red oak were
really celebrate the qualities of this timber species on its own. used and through our Life Cycle Assessment tool, we can

“Not only did AHEC via the Rossi Group provide us with calculate that all of this wood would take just 1.72 seconds to
three timber species to experiment with, they also connected be replaced in the American hardwood forest through natural
us to technical experts to help us learn about working with regeneration. Furthermore, we know that, on arrival in Chennai
each of these species. Access to this kind of expertise was port, the American hardwood lumber that was donated by
invaluable, and we've already launched products in American The Rossi Group, would have been carbon negative,” added
hardwoods like red oak because of the knowledge we gained Roderick Wiles, AHEC Regional Director.
from his project. The environmental credentials of American A key component of the collaboration involved knowledge

hardwoods make them extremely attractive for us and the transfer and skill sharing between Markowitz and Phantom
data on regeneration provided for each species helped us Hands. Working remotely in Australia and then in-person
make clear decisions on which timbers we would want to use during his visits to Bangalore, Adam was able to help the
in our future collections. In fact, I would go so far as to say team from Phantom Hands master methods for laminating
that decisions on which species we want to work with will timber, including techniques for sawing veneer; techniques
influence the design of our future collections,” added Srinath. for stitching veneer together into larger panels; methods of
“During manufacturing, the team at Phantom Hands jig making for pressing veneers into shapes; and methods for
collected data on the volumes of the three species used to gluing with clamps and with a vacuum press.
Despite the language barrier, Adam was able to not only

build a rapport with the team in India, but he also learnt a
lot from watching them work and developed a deep respect
for their hand skills stemming from their long craft tradition.
“Through collaborations like this, which involve passing
on much-needed technical knowledge and hands-on
experience, as well as showing the beauty, versatility and
environmental credentials of American hardwoods, we hope

to encourage more manufacturers in India to choose them,”
concluded Wiles.