Blimey that’s come around quick. It only seems like yesterday that I was standing in this same spot admiring architect Henry Edward Coe’s Kensington Olympia, waiting to enter a beautiful building that first opened its doors to the public in 1886, and which has hosted events as broad as the Great Horse Show in 1888 to the first ever computer exhibition in 1958.
It’s a balmy day, feeling more like the beginning of Summer than the start of Autumn, which makes me happy; until I am hit with the realisation that actually, this may not be such a good thing for the planet?! As my conscience kicks in (I point out to myself) that I walked to the station, caught the train plus, with any luck, ten thousand or more people will be able to read this article, saving carbon by not having to visit the show in person – so ,actually, my conscience on this occasion can take a hike and come back when its needed. After all, these local events are where it’s all at.
This year I allowed myself to go wild. There were beautiful products that had been around for a while that I had never reviewed but always quite liked, some cutting-edge sustainable pendants, and a few aesthetic-driven delights, bundled in with some retro designs that really appealed. And I’ve never seen so many lighting manufacturers here before, which can only be a good thing.
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.The Drop 3 is a pendant from Original BTC, first released in Spring / Summer 21, at a time when most of the world was starting to open up after the pandemic; as director Charlie Bowles explained to me: ‘The drop range was designed by my father about 15 years ago, and the aesthetic of the product comes, as the name would suggest, from a droplet when it lands on the surface of water. 15 years ago, we did try and produce the product alongside the drop one and drop two, but back then it was dropped from the range due to how difficult it was to manufacture. After a few years passed, my father took on a bone China factory in Stoke on Trent, and due to this addition, we also gained new in-house expertise, meaning we could revisit the product, and now manufacture the Drop 3 to a quality level that meets our standards’.
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.‘All our packaging is ecofriendly paper, a massive improvement that works so much better than what was used before, we do as much as we can in respect to recycling and waste, and all packaging goes back to source. In addition, all our vehicles in the company are electric’.
This luminaire has a very clean aesthetic, and the bone china produces a light that is warm, soft, and diffuse. The thing I love most about this product is its simple elegance, something that should appeal as much in 50-60 years as it does is today. Original BTC recommend using a 6watt LED E27 lamp.
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Torsa – Cameron Design House
This beautiful pendant from Cameron Design House immediately caught my eye with its sheer opulence, I love a product that has something of intrigue about it, as in, how do they do that? When unlit, the chandelier appears as a simple gold reflective disk which is quite stunning, but when turned on the disk becomes ‘a radiant eclipse of light’. Imogen Spry, head of projects / sales gave me the lowdown.
‘We are a British sculptural lighting and furniture design studio based in Hertfordshire where all our pieces are made. The Torsa we are showing today is a modular pendant, you can use it in various configurations of pendant within the sculpture itself. The product is available in polished brass, but also brushed and burnished. Torsa is dimmable to zero, and we offer a design service to assist our clients in choosing something that is perfectly designed to the space in which it is being used.’
The LED strip is integrated into the rim and has a CRI of >95 available in 2700 – 3000K. I was told that the inspiration for the piece follows a theme that all their products have, a clean Finnish design aesthetic, simplistic design, simple geometry, the mirrored pendant reflecting the idea of calm Finnish lakes. Should the lamp need to be replaced they do offer assistance if required, as the face needs to be removed. The LED source should last 50,000 hours I was told, but we have all heard that before right!?
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Torsa – Cameron Design House
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Kaia Lighting this year were displaying a pendant product designed by Ursula Saniawa, a designer and Ceramic installation artist, owner of Unit89. Named ‘Reincarnation’, Ursula kindly explained a little more about these lights: –
‘The product ‘Reincarnation’ is made from a specially developed ceramic composite material, using remnants of other making processes, including marble, wood, paper, ceramic, and clay offcuts all mixed. The pendants are large primitive forms that reflect the duality of perfect mathematical shapes, with large ceramic disks mounted above the light. Everything is hand made in the U.K. from my studio in Southeast London. The pendants are suspended by a handcrafted industrial looking metal chain, designed to create an aesthetic juxtaposition between the two elements.’
‘We have three main forms, but you can customize the number of rings that you have on top, the chain length and finish’.
For me these products would be perfect for where you want to create a bit of a visual tension in a space, and best used over a breakfast bar, dining table or staircase, the slightly rough finish and blemishes work well, reflecting the material used. Their sustainability credentials are amazing, the process I was told is quite time consuming, but stops all this discarded material from going to land fill, which is a massive sustainable win when you consider how much work goes into getting it out in the first place or chopping it down!
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Kaia Reincarnation
Fung and Bedford are a Sussex based studio that create origami inspired, large scale Tyvek paper installations, or architectural origami if you will. Showing for the first time this year at Decorex, was their Kawa 川 pendant. Ashley Bedford told me all about it.
Fung and Bedford Kawa 川
‘The piece you are looking at is called Kawa, (meaning river) so I guess you can call it a river of light. In terms of inspiration, all origami is unstructured, and as it is completely floppy, you need to give it structure, so we use an aluminium wire section which is illuminated with light, that accentuates the form.
Its hand-twisted, and as you spread the origami on the aluminium section, it unfolds. The ones shown here are three metres, the longest we have made is 6m. We can change the led strip specification to suit the client’s needs, but we prefer 4000K (white) as it suits white paper perfectly, I don’t like the yellow glow that you get from anything under this colour temperature, it starts looking muddy. Its all hand folded in one piece of paper.’
The product could almost be described as bespoke for every user, since you decide how you long you stretch it, and as they are modular you can make it as long as you want. Due to its weight its almost kinetic in nature, the folds acting almost as sails, and due to the way, it is constructed, can be packaged in a small box, making it perfect for warehousing and transportation. These would rock in any stairwell or atrium!
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Fung and Bedford Kawa III
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For our final light from the show, I thought a bit of retro design from Florence Italy, would be a handy reminder of the beauty that can be found in the use of strong colours, and simple forms. Bronzetto is a ‘mature artisan company’ selling internationally, and Francesca Amato the marketing manager explained to me a little about their famous ‘Wormhole table light’ inspired by products of the last century. (Weird name – I asked – like the thing you find in the garden ?!, NO! ‘Wormhole’ I was told, as a space-time tunnel connecting one universe to the other. Yep that makes more sense now!)
‘We are a 60 years old artisan company, showing here the Wormhole connection. It’s made in Brass, and the shades are available in any RAL colour you require. The inside of the table lamp is in gold leaf, dark or champagne. This is one of our best sellers, inspired by the sort of lamps you would find in your grandmothers house’
‘Maybe In Italy, my gran was a big fan of Brown, yes lots of brown bells with dangly bits ?!’
‘Brown Bells, dangly bits?’
‘Er . . . don’t worry. Sorry moving on !’
‘Unlike the lamps from that era, the power cord is concealed, and the material used is of a high quality, the base is made from marble and we offer a selection of types depending on your taste. Any waste we produce during the production of the product we melt down and reuse, recast. The lamp is an E27 lamp, and luminaire gives distribution both up and down, it’s also adjustable.’
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Wormhole’ from Bronzetto
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