Lia Bruce, the artist who sculpts Dead Sea salt

Salt shakers

In the kitchen, in the sea, and even within our own bodies, salt is an essential element of life. “Salt has always fascinated me,” says Israeli artist Lia Bruce, who has spent the past decade creating decorative objects from Dead Sea salt. Her passion for salt was a true revelation—one that quickly became her artistic signature. After earning a degree in architecture from the Technion in Haifa, a Bachelor of Fine Arts, and a Master’s in Industrial Design from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, Lia held her first exhibition and decided to merge her engineering skills with her artistic talent. Out of this union was born SaltwareDesign, a studio nestled in her garden where each piece is handcrafted. Her goal: to shed light on the untapped potential of salt.

“Every artist has a signature—mine turned out to be the salt. It’s what speaks to me the most. I remember my grandmother putting little salt bags in my school bag. As a child, I didn’t pay attention, but much later I reconnected with salt—it became my favorite material,” recalls Lia.

Inspired by her grandmother, who used to sew salt into small cotton pouches to make protective amulets, Lia began creating salt installations while still an art student. She worked with raw, unprocessed materials, always striving to give them both a tangible and spiritual dimension.

Lia Bruce

Between Blessing and Fragility

“In every culture, salt symbolizes blessing and good fortune. When I started studying its properties, I also became fascinated by its meaning,” Lia explains. “I come from a Sephardic Jewish family, and for us, salt is a good-luck charm—it’s used to ward off the evil eye. But this is true in other cultures too. In Japan, people place salt outside restaurants or homes to bring good luck and drive away spirits. In India, newlyweds receive salt bags as their first housewarming gift.”

Although salt is a strong substance, Lia notes that it is also extremely fragile—it crumbles and dissolves easily when exposed to moisture, a particular challenge in Israel’s humid climate. A natural problem-solver, Lia set out to overcome every limitation of salt, making it malleable and durable enough for her creations.

When Science Meets Design

Lia’s fascination with salt took a decisive turn during her master’s degree at Bezalel in 2015, when she met Professor Daniel Mandler from the Institute of Chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem—a meeting that would change her career forever.

Professor Mandler, a leading figure in sustainable chemistry, developed a breakthrough technology that transforms residual Dead Sea salt into a robust, eco-friendly, three-dimensional material resistant to pressure and humidity by up to 80%.

For her thesis project, Lia collaborated with the Institute of Chemistry to create decorative tiles, discovering that salt could be up to ten times stronger than concrete.

Hamsa

“I experimented a lot before refining my technique, and eventually specialized in Dead Sea salt,” Lia says. “In Jewish culture, salt symbolizes the covenant between God and the Jewish people—something we recall every Shabbat during Kiddush, when we dip the challah in salt. In Christianity, Jesus says to his followers: You are the salt of the earth, meaning the most precious thing in the world.”

In antiquity, salt was a form of currency—so valuable that it sparked wars until the 16th century. This sense of preciousness is exactly what Lia seeks to restore through her art.

A Thriving Business Born from Salt

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, Lia took the bold leap of founding her own business: SaltwareDesign. Her very first creation was a minimalist salt shaker, soon followed by a full line of Judaica pieces—Shabbat candleholders, Hanukkah menorahs, Kiddush cups, Hamsas, and more. Lia takes pride in blending her cultural roots with her design sensibility, though she warns: “My objects are decorative—definitely not dishwasher-safe!”

Her studio came to life inside a renovated cattle wagon on her property in the Hefer Valley, near Netanya, in central Israel. From preparing the salt to photographing and writing for her website, Lia does everything herself—with contagious energy and positivity.

Using a custom-built press machine, she compresses and molds salt into solid objects. The process is entirely artisanal: she grinds the salt into powder, preserves some of its granular texture, adds natural pigments, molds the shape, rinses, and air-dries it. Each piece is one-of-a-kind, shaped by hand and compressed under high pressure, deliberately limiting production to maintain exclusivity.

“People react so positively—they’re amazed by the idea,” Lia says. Her creations have since found homes around the world, especially among Jewish communities in the United States.

Candle holders

The Future of Salt: A Sustainable Material

Today, Lia Bruce is exploring ways to create eco-friendly salt tiles, with the long-term goal of reducing the use of plastic and concrete in housing construction.

“Just as there are earth houses in Africa or igloos in Scandinavia, there’s no reason we can’t imagine salt houses—durable and sustainable,” she says.

In the near future, Lia plans to expand her collection to include new items such as engraved towel holders and wall decorations. The only obstacle for now: the high cost of the technology.

From an ancient symbol to a futuristic innovation, Lia Bruce is giving salt back its original value—a material of memory and of the future.

Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/saltwaredesign/

Website : https://saltwaredesign.com/?srsltid=AfmBOooceKV_xjW7enknVe2LO9_7kXjQCI8mLbaMuI6FGfBkgxG-Xunl

Caroline Haïat