Brussels-based designer Ori Orisun Merhav has won a 2026 Dutch Design Award for transforming shellac—a natural polymer secreted by tiny lac insects—into glowing sculptures and sculptural furniture. Through her research practice Made by Insects, Merhav heats and blows the amber-colored substance into translucent bubbles, mounting them on branching steel structures and suspending them as large chandeliers.
The insects behind the material are Kerria lacca, roughly the size of a grain of sand. They attach to tree branches, feed on sap, and convert sugars into a hard, protective resin enclosure. Humans have harvested this dried secretion for centuries as a wood finish. Merhav first encountered the cultivation process during studies at Design Academy Eindhoven, traveling to Thailand to observe how communities harvest the resin and how synthetic alternatives have gradually reduced global demand.
From Graduation Roots to Clustered Structures
The research began as Merhav’s 2022 graduation project, The Lac Lab Open Source, before expanding into Made by Insects. Studio experiments revealed that heating shellac softens it, allowing the designer to stretch it into thin membranes and blow hollow forms using glassmaking techniques. Early large bubbles proved too brittle for transport, prompting a shift in method.
By studying the cellular enclosures built by the insects, Merhav began joining smaller, interconnected resin volumes. Works such as Branching Insects Chandelier and Meet Me Under the Insects Tree utilize this clustered logic, mounting amber bubbles on slender metal supports to cast warm light through uneven surfaces.
Pushing Shellac Into Digital Fabrication
Merhav expanded the material’s applications into digital fabrication in 2023, collaborating with Ginger Additive, Reflexlab, and Aeditto to produce the first 3D-printed shellac objects. Continued work with material engineer Tom Samson and the Bio-Polymer Lab at Avans University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands refined the process.
The technique pushes the natural polymer through a printer without chemical modification. Temperature and extrusion behavior leave behind visible layers and irregular cellular walls, a dynamic visible in the Morphopoiesis vessels.
Display Shellac Bubbles and Woven Insect Canopy at Gallery Exhibition
The research extends into immersive architectural environments, including an exhibition at Sarah Myerscough Gallery titled Portal Into The Multi-Species, running from October 14th to November 7th, 2026. The installation fills the gallery entrance with shellac bubbles on steel branches. Deeper inside, The Woven Insect Canopy features palm sheaths coated in resin and held within steel supports, illuminated by internal LEDs across works titled Awakening, Regeneration, and Bifurcation, the latter reaching 140 centimeters in height.
Key Inquiries Into Lac Design
Understanding the intricate supply chain and mechanical behavior of shellac requires examining several core elements of Merhav’s ongoing practice.
- What specific insects produce shellac? The material is produced by Kerria lacca, insects roughly the size of a grain of sand that attach to tree branches and convert sap into a protective resin enclosure.
- When did 3D printing experiments begin? Merhav produced her first 3D-printed shellac objects in 2023 through collaborations with Ginger Additive, Reflexlab, and Aeditto.
- Where was the Portal Into The Multi-Species exhibition displayed? The exhibition was displayed at Sarah Myerscough Gallery from October 14th to November 7th, 2026.
Worth a look