Warped by Design: Table Lamps

3 Images of a 40cm tall table lamp in linen woven in Atwater Bronson Lace and formed into a 10cm tube.

The base is linen woven on a very open set with varied weft spacing. Beads are woven in. The cloth was formed, wet, over the support post and vitrified.

Double Weave Lamp

The first of 6 lamps to be woven in double weave. I wanted to produce an open but stiff base layer for the lampshade structural material with a very open transparent top layer which I could shape and mould around the shade. This first one has the second layer attached only at one end. This allowed me to roll it up out of the way whilst I vitrified the linen cloth into a tube. The rigid tube was then shaped and finally, I was able to unroll the top layer and curve and shape it before attaching its open end.

TEA LIGHT SHADE

A self-supporting lamp shade that accepts
an electronic tea-light unit (a 3V 4x LED unit).
Woven double weave on same linen warp as the other lamps. The fringe top and bottom are vitrified; te bottom to allow the fring to support the weight of the woven tube. The 2nd layer is a chenille which is opaque allowing the base layer linen to glow with the light.

Detail showing the top fringe - I didn't want a 'twee' and neat fringe - so I clumped it together rather than combing it whilst still wet to give a 'bedragled, wet-look to the fringes.

The LEd light

My Why's and Wherefores of Weaving

I am not an experienced weaver and was not drawn to it through an interest in textiles in their traditional context. I have spent much of my life researching problems & designing purely for function. Now, my nirvana is an idea where appearance is the startpoint; where the visual drives the design development; where what you see is more important than what it does: functionalilty follows form.
I quickly learned that the loom is just the start. The further you stray from the accepted confines of the loom, the more you discover that structures and techniques can provide a virtually limitless opportunity to express ideas through its versatility to combine materials and methods from all fields of art, design and engineering: Texture, colour, compliance or rigidity - even its ability to produce stressed elements in a product or sculpture.
So for me weaving has no boundary or rules. As I am neither a composer, lyricist nor painter, weaving is the starting point from which I express my ideas and explore design opportunities.

Warped by Design

Table Lamps

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