All Photos By Gail
The MGM Table Lamp was designed by ‘radical’ Italian designer Lapo Binazzi and manufactured from 1960 to 1969. The MGM name comes from the lamp’s resemblance to the iconic Movie Studio Logo.
Tag Archives: lamp
Eye On Design: Tiffany Turtleback Lantern
All Photos By Gail
Tiffany artisans made the irregularly surfaced Turtlebacks, a Tiffany Studio invention, by pressing glass into molds.
Eye On Design: Tiffany Wisteria Lamps Designed by Clara Driscoll
Photo By Gail
One of Tiffany Studios‘ most popular models, the Wisteria, was priced as $400 in 1906, placing it among the firm’s most costly lamps. The glass selection for the two lamps (both circa 1901) seen in the above photo created two dramatically different interpretations of the same design. One has a refined color palette ranging from pale blue to azure and cobalt, while the other displays bold contrasts of blue and white clusters.
Wisteria abounded in LC Tiffany’s leaded glass windows and on the grounds of his country estate, Laurelton Hall, and although the vine was a Tiffany favorite, Clara Driscoll’s correspondence identifies her as the designer of the iconic Wisteria lamp, which is composed of nearly 2,000 tiny pieces of glass. Designs for the Trumpet Creeper, Grape, and Apple Blossom, each sold with the same treelike base, followed shortly after the Wisteria.
Photographed in the New York Historical Society on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
Eye On Design: Art Deco Lamp By Donald Deskey
All Photos By Gail
Donald Deskey (1894 – 1989) creator of the interiors at Radio City Music Hall, is a towering figure of modern design. This Art Deco Lamp (circa 1927) is a response to the upward thrust of the New York City skyline. Its boxy proportion echo a tall, narrow building, while on the two side panels, rectilinear puzzle-like patterns similarly evoke compressed architectural forms.
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Pink Thing of The Day: Emby Pink Flower Lamp
All Photos By Gail
On the lookout for cool Pink Things at the ICFF, we spotted this ‘illuminating’ design by UIC student Maria Diamond. Emby, a bud-shaped sculptural lamp, is made from fluorescent pink sheets of acrylic. This type of acrylic is unique in that it has colored edges that have a natural glow to them. Its light source — an LED puck light that is also covered by acrylic — was placed to shine downwards into the acrylic, forcing it to refract through the curves and the etched contours of this organic form. Inspired by the form of a flower, the acrylic was heated and shaped in a way that best-defined the edges, to create a rosy glowing lamp. Stunning!
I contacted Maria via email, and she provided additional background on the piece:
“The project brief was to select a material from a list given to us as students, and then come up with a house good that best exemplifies the properties of that material. In my case, what is unique about acrylic is that some [types] have colored edges that have an inherent glow. Acrylic is also a thermoplastic, so I laser cut a flower-inspired shape from the sheet of acrylic and cooked it in my oven, which allowed me to bend the petals upward, as I wanted to highlight the petals’ edges.”
The designer continues, “I thought it was interesting to have the puck light be its own piece, because most people would assume the central placement of a light would shine up and out of a form. Instead, I did the opposite; that, when turned on, the source of light providing the natural glow from the edges is questioned. Maria is selling this design for $180 and is open to making additional lamps in different colors. You can contact her by leaving a message in comment section!