COLLECTIONS OF DECORATIVE LIGHTING FIXTURE DESIGN, WITH EXAMPLES OF HANDMADE PROTOTYPES, AVAILABLE FOR CUSTOM PRODUCTION.
Red as the soil and sandstone of Prince Edward Island, the brick housing of keppoch perfectly frames the “sunset” of a warm-dimming bulb, and creates an ombre-esque reflection off of the cylindrical open face.
Keppoch Beach on P.E.I. is the first point on the eastern coastline of the Charlottetown Harbour, before the sea and sightline breaks open to the Northumberland Strait. It’s also where my grandparents have lived for as long as I can remember, and where we still go to eat and drink until one of us, or the sun, hits the floor.
Home to two theatres in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, The Mack and the Confederation Centre of the Arts, Grafton St in flows in from points east of the island, into the historic downtown.
A nod to theatrical marquee signage in an otherwise small, rural city, grafton combines dramatically back-lit folded acryllic within a rustic housing of plywood with exposed brass fasteners, with the ability to fold the top shade down akin to a theatre seat.
Creating an end result marrying the out-of-town and the downtown—a bardyard opera.
Composed of four fluted wooden masts turned outwards, the base of souris has soft, eclipse-curved faces meeting rigid angular corners, with opposing parallel red oak and maple wood finishes, to act as a pedestal to the centerpieced warm-dimming G30 bulb.
Souris is a small town on the Eastern end of Prince Edward Island, mainly known for seasonal industries of fishing, oysters, and tourism. Souris is French for “mouse” and a mouse is the town’s mascot. It is said that “a French vessel passing by the bay in the early 1700s was forced to cut through the waves of drowned mice and so gave the name to the area… which has nothing to with this lamp, but I’d bet the only person who’s read this far is my mom, who has a deathly fear of mice. And I love grossing her out. Hi Mom.
Working in the lighting design industry, I came to accrue a very strange collection of paperweights. One of which was a giant stack of SORAA snap lenses of various sizes, beam angles, and filters that designers would come and riffle through for mockups or different projects.
I noticed that this paperweight of mine was being picked up and fiddled with by whoever was coming to talk to me at my desk, which was certainly a fidget I was guilty of as well. They would pull the lenses apart, rearrange them in different arrays, twist them so the competing beam angles would create a kaleidoscope of colours—almost without really realizing they were doing it.
This observation inspired me to make a fixture you’d want to play around with, and could become whatever you wanted to make of it. Load it with colour filters to cast a warm sunset against the wall, arrarnge the lens-vertibrae to some funky pattern, or just take off all the lenses and use it as a naked uplight for all I care.
Bonshaw is a provincial park in Prince Edward Island. A heavily wooded area with picturesque creeks and hiking trails interweaving. Its main trail is named Ji’ka’we’katik, meaning “the place where bass is plentiful”: its traditional Mi’kmaq name.
