Milan’s Design Week tends to throw up the weird and the wonderful – both of which might be considered well represented with 85-year old German designer Ingo Maurer’s ‘Bellissima Luzy’ luminaires, launched at the event last month. The bizarre range has been fashioned from plastic gloves with low-voltage frosted light bulbs at the fingertips. Their design also exemplifies the liquidity of design inspiration, with Maurer initially creating an installation of dyed blue sponges that involved the team hanging their paint splattered gloves up to dry against the studio wall every evening. After a while illumination struck. Staring at them hanging there ‘it was more than whispering to be a lamp, it was blaring it out!’ confides Maurer. His melange of Marigolds-meets-Yves-Klein-International-Blue will certainly raise eyebrows wherever it’s installed, though where to put it might be taxing. Rubber fetishists will be pleased to know it’s also available in black.