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These cool table lamps from the BlankBlank design studio resemble upturned iPods, emitting notes of light rather than those of music. Entitled ‘Low Frequency’, the lights come in a range of designs and colours. As the BlankBlank team says:
“The light consists of 6 white planes whose reverse sides are printed with vivid colors that reflect colored light onto the preceding planes, as well as through the translucent enclosure. Front and back planes are available in light or dark wood laminates”
Objects With Light’s latest release is a novel lamp at the junction of sight and sound. The Tweeter lamp uses reclaimed parts from stereo speakers arranged in a spherical or semi-spherical shape surrounding a bulb. Once the light is plugged in to an electrical source the lamp lights up and the speakers begin to play whatever music they are hooked up to.
Francois Azambourg’s Brindilles Lights taper downward in twig-like twirl, mimicing the broken straws and curling stems of a brushwood plant. The luminous strands are made from a combination of LEDs and fibre optic cables, arranged randomly they light up like exposed filaments, burning brightest at the tips, or tumbleweeds catching the sun of the desert and the tincture of white sand.
Tord Boontje’s line of lights for Unica Home are currently selling fast at the store and this is one of the stand-outs. These wonderful chandeliers speak of once lush foliage now crisp with the cold autumnal air, turned golden brown in the sun or to flakes of silver in the snow. The light emanting from within briefly touches the elaborate brocade and dusts the patterns with wintery light. The tones of earth, rust, barley and wheat are expressed by the choice of materials, grounding the frail designs with permanence and instilling a sense of perennial fall. A Hanging Gardens of Babylon curated with the colours of New England.
These parachute hanging lamps from designer Chahiro Tanaka are currently selling at Australian boutique Via Alley. The lights are suspended in groups like dynamic sculptures of movement, falling bombs arrested at the decisive moment just as they approach the ground, or parturient biopods pungent with life. Thankfully this intimidating, haunting power is counter-balanced by the soft, cushion-like feel of the lights as well as the joyous and ambient glow that the lamps subtly and beautifully emit. These lights are as belligerent and as soft as a pillow-fight.
The Kyouei Balloon Lamp is a self-powered, self-contained lantern that can be strung along in lines for a Japanese hanging lamp effect or grouped together for a clustered cloud look. The ambient lamps are made from a simple balloon affixed to a long lasting LED. The light is powered by lithium coin batteries so there is no need to connect the lamp to a grounded power supply.
The best, most atmospheric lights are those with a definable source and somewhat limited luminosity – the moon, stars, candles and even those little trailing LED lights that run along the aisles of movie theatres. notNeutral’s garden lanterns possess such a light, rather than flooding a room with blunt, overbearing colour, they are offertories of a delicate, beaded light. Said to be a mix of Aztec and Morrocan patterns, to me the designs are reminscent of a fine chantilly lace but with the motifs of Aboriginal Art – the fish skeleton, the emu foot, the woomera. The lanterns are made from metal with a black, oxidised finish and come fitted with a candle that shines through the staccato light-holes.
This innovative lamp is based on the aesthetic of the chemistry flask and glows with a simple, white light through the acid-etched glass. The Airswitch lamps are turned on and off by placing your hand above the light – the closer your hand to the lid, the dimmer the lamp gets, and vice-versa.
These lights glisten like winter flowers suspended on ethereal branch-like wires. The light element uses translucent envelopes fitted with electroluminescent film upon which one can write messages that will glow in the dark with a soft, ambient light. Using a dry erase marker, the messages can be wiped clean or kept on as long as one desires. The lights stand on either white marble blocks (recovered from the making of the Arco lamp) or a bundle of pure wool felt moulded into unique shapes.
SuckUK’s Solar lamps are back. The sun jars sell out immediately wherever they go on sale but i’ve tracked down a supplier who still has a few left. They are made from an old fashioned killiner jar – traditionally used to store jams – a solar panel, rechargeable battery and an LED light. Simply leave the jar out in the sun during the day, and watch it come on as it gets dark. Perfect for those late summer nights when you don’t want the sun to set.
Donna Brady’s gritty photographs of urban Brooklyn have found their way into the home as images printed onto lampshade. The hanging lamps use Brady’s pictures of street graffiti on dark, gloomy walls. Twice removed from their natural environment, the exuberance inherent in the colours of the graffiti is exaggerated and heightened, modifying the lamp light with their brash tone. Brady’s photographics are perhaps second-hand art, simply recording the raw & immediate expressions of street art, yet for this reason the pictures seem perfect for the medium of a lampshade – lit from beyond by second-hand light.
These two wall lamps do not shy away from attention but provide reference points for a room, domesticated installation lights that attract as much light as they provide.
The first is entitled ‘Edge’ – it’s an elided cube with panels lit in various bold colours. This is designed by Alessandro Mendini for Artemide.
Tejo Remy’s concept chandelier is selling on Dutch by Design at the moment. The iconic hanging lights can be bought individually to create sole focal point or as a cluster forming a striking milk-float effect.
This table lamp looks like it is made out of folded paper, so light and ethereal like an origami crane, yet when it is turned on there all kinds of subtle and deep shades & blushes that shine through from within.
Apropos Pig 