Ori Orisun Merhav follows natural lac—a deep amber, translucent resin produced by insects—to explore its material possibilities across human and more-than-human worlds. She bridges traditional crafts, such as glassblowing, with additive manufacturing, investigating how this biomaterial exerts living agency in shaping, or even growing, our built environment. 

Through her research platform, Made by Insects, Merhav collaborates with both scientific institutions like the Bio-Polymer Lab in Breda and lac-harvesting communities in India and Thailand. Her sculptural works materialise these ecological entanglements. Through the mutualism of insects, trees, and human labour, her craft stretches this heritage material into the present to imagine regenerative systems for producing, inhabiting, and understanding the world.