Lampshade Modifications

Searching for the right lamp fitting

One of the challenges I had to face was to find a right light fitting and light bulb as these elements play a significant role within the design.
These exposed parts and the lampshade will create the overall lamp form with carefully selected details and colours.

Right at the beginning I was thinking about using the Plumen light bulb as its an energy efficient (11 Watts) light bulb, which would protect the leather from being exposed to heat. Additionally, the specific design is overpowering with its sculptural organic form, that could add more of a contemporary feel to my design. The light bulb also comes with nicely designed lamp holder in a copper colour which could match with the lamp’s leather skin tone perfectly.
Nonetheless, while checking it with my lampshade it turned out to be much bigger than I expected and did not match my intentions at all.

The second attempt was to look at the vintage light bulbs which have nice decorative filaments and generate warm light. I have found some of them in John Lewis, I knew I would need to do some light testing, and look into a shape that would work with my design. Unfortunately, there were some limitation on the collection they had in store, and none of the ones they had seemed to match my expectations.

After some research I managed to find a much better choice of light bulbs produced by a company  called Eddie & sons who offers traditional (in Edison style) lightning. The strong identity and traditional design of the lighting corresponds very nicely to the lampshade. The broad range of different shapes and products allowed me to explore more possibilities. In my favour, the actual lamp holders they offer, represent great quality and very nice metallic colour pallets. I decided to start from one order and test it out, as the lampshade comes with defined dimensions, left during the making process to insert the fitting.

Final decisions & pattern changes

After the light test, I could exactly see, what kind of light I can get, and how is it lighting the space, and what kind of shadows does it create. As a result, the light penetrates through the cutouts and creates distorted shadows due to the light bulb’s decorative filaments.

Since I gained more understanding about the final result of my lampshade, I decided to change the pattern slightly. In that way, it can appeal to a larger audience by stripping off the unnecessary complexity of being asymmetric. The final decisions were getting me closer to get the lamp perfect, and make it symmetric. As a result, the cutouts were moved to the bottom of the lampshade to awake viewer’s curiosity. They have been replaced by stamps to obtain a mirrored pattern on the other side.
Finally, there will be a reduced quantity of stamps on the top of the lampshade, to keep it as simple as it can be. All of these changes will help with the crucial execution.

I have sent the new pattern layout to Anne, keeping the measurements almost the same as they are in the prototyped model.  There were few additional details that I wanted to add. To cover the raw inner lampshade surface with the full grain hide as well.

Our communication from now on will be on Skype to make sure, that everything is going the right track.

ASSUMPTIONS

The lamp can be displayed by itself or as a set of same sizes pendants. The lampshades are made of natural full grain, cattle leather. However, the colour options can vary, from hides tanned in brown to black colour.
During the exhibition I am planning to showcase 3 lamps of natural colour leather displayed as a set and differentiated by the level on which they will be fixed. They will come along with golden lamp holders, two pitch black round cords and one twisted.
Additionally to show up the colour and pattern variation, there will be presented one black lampshade with a copper rose lamp holder and golden twisted cord, having the pattern only inside the lampshade.

The ready pendant kit contains:
– handmade, full grain leather lampshade
– 3 core round or 3 core twisted, pitch black cord (0,75mm) (with possibilities for other coloration)
– ST58 small tear drop squirrel light bulb
–  French gold or copper rose lamp holder with diamond etched pattern