Special Edition Z1 lamp for Ay Illuminate
We recently tried out a little idea with our wonderful friends at Ay Illuminate in the Netherlands.
The Z1 pendant lamp, designed by Nelson Sepulveda, has become an iconic product for super-stylish lighting company Ay Illuminate. I'm sure you will be familiar with it since it is regularly featured in interiors magazines and is stocked by many of the world's most stylish homewares stores (such as Couleur Locale, HomeStories in NY and Kristina Stoeckel).
"If you ask people to draw a lantern, they draw it like this." describes Nelson. Based around a simple bamboo frame, the lamp comes in a variety of versions from the classic simple white cotton shade, to a silk cashmere shade which is woven by hand in Afghanistan (providing work for impoverished communities and reviving the art of cashmere and silk weaving which nearly vanished from the country in recent times).
Back in 2015 we had a conversation with Nelson at Maison et Objet in Paris. He and Ay Lin Heinen, the founder of Ay Illuminate, had the idea to create special editions of the Z1 shade to celebrate 10 years of it's enduring popularity. We share a common passion with Ay Illuminate and Nelson Sepulveda for local traditions and making objects in natural materials in contemporary designs. The collaboration seemed like the perfect fit, and our design director Graham suggested we create some embroidered white cotton fabric shades for the Z1.
Taking our embroidered cushion designs as a starting point, Graham drew out 3 patterns which we then sent to our talented embroiderers in Kutch along with the pre-cut shades from Ay Illuminate.
Here are the results! We think they look wonderful, and hope you like them. Ay Illuminate will be showing the designs in their special projects section at Maison et Objet this September.
For all enquiries on these special edition embroidered lamps, in the first instance please contact us.
The design of the Z1 has its roots in a childhood memory of Nelson's: "New Years Eve, I was around 8-9 years old and walked down a dark street. Someone lit a paper lantern. A flame sparkled, and up the yellow lantern rose into the black sky. Pure magic".
