We didn't make it to SaloneSatellite at this years Milan furniture fair.
We we're, somewhat ironically, to busy getting wound up at the fact that Milan is now so big and expensive it's all but impossible to find anything.
Fortunately Thomas Geisler from the Vienna Design Week organising team doesn't let such things annoy him and did go to SaloneSatellite.
Where he saw Antoinette Bader and her LacesLamp.
With whom he spoke.
Who then applied for a space on the Carte Blanche programme at the 2010 Vienna Design Week.
Which she got.
And so we could also, finally, enjoy LacesLamp.
Now you know us, we don't do furniture made from household objects.
Chairs made from drying racks, coat hangers made from forks or beds made from roofing tiles may be interesting and indeed important student projects. But they ain't products and never will be.
LacesLamp by Antoinette Bader is different.
Yes it's made from laces.
But that's not what is interesting or alluring about the design.
The construction of the lamps is such that, with the hanging lamps at least, there is no internal skeleton, rather the rings which give the lamps their form are held in place by the laces.
But principally there is the wonderful shadows.
Obviously on the one hand, the visible shadow outwards, a truly delightful, smooth illumination but then additionally one has the shadowing on the laces themselves - an effect which gives the lamps a greater depth than they actually posses meaning you have this delicate, minimal structure that fills a space without dominating it.
Which we like. A lot
But most importantly it is not a concept that is limited to laces. Much more it is a system for building lamps with which a designer who understands their material can use more or less anything to create such an effect.
Which we like. Even more.
Clearly we were also more than little blown away by the wonderful location, hats off to the Vienna Design Week team for that little coup.
LacesLamp by Antoinette Bader can be viewed in the SCHEER-Raum at Rudolf Scheer & Söhne Bräunerstrasse 4 until 10.10.10
