Max Gunawan and the Lumio Book Light

If there is a hero of the modern blook, it's Max Gunawan, inventor of the Lumio book light and Mini Lumio+. It would be hard to imagine a more elegant blook or a more engaging man. Lumio is a rechargeable LED light with about a long-lasting battery. Its covers are wood and magnets are embedded in the covers so that the 'book' can be attached to metal surfaces. The interior 'pages' are made of Tyvek. The Lumio book light is in octavo format. I asked Max why he made it that size and he said, it just felt right. That's bookness for you. Soon, the mini-Lumio book light will be out. It's a pocket-sized version modeled on a Moleskin notebook, which is a book that Max is familiar with and has enjoyed using.  The Mini+has a removable, magnetized spine that hides a convenient phone charger. You can read all about Max and the lamps on the Hellolumio website. 

Max has had an interesting and inspiring journey and it's been a great success. It wasn't long ago that Max quit his job in an architect's office to follow his dream of designing and manufacturing useful, simple and beautiful objects for us all to enjoy. Since then he has had  a successful Kickstarter campaign, created TED talks, gotten financing through appearing on the TV show Shark Tank, and is selling the lamps in many Museum shops. I recently contacted Max to ask if he would consider contributing a lamp so that I could show it with it's historical precedents in my upcoming exhibition. He generously agreed and came in person to deliver and demonstrate it to the delight of the book conservation staff. If you want to read more about his journey, follow the links in this post.

Here's a few links about Max and Lumio:

Max's TED talk:

Shark Tank video:

Interview with Max: http://inhabitat.com/interview-we-talk-to-lumio-folding-book-lamp-creator-max-gunawan/

Some Blooks I Made With Helen Hiebert

In 2006, Helen Hiebert invited me to Haystack to attend her class on making paper lamps. It was such fun and Helen is an amazing educator, as everyone knows who has ever read any of her books. Today she sent me a link to her website where she published a photo of some of the blooks I made in her class. By the way, they are Reference Blook lamps and lanterns, if you can't tell. I had forgotten about this photo and thought maybe you'd like to see them. Here is a link to her site: http://helenhiebertstudio.com/summer-camp/. Since then I've made many book objects and hopefully always will.