Behind the Design: Making the Keel
A brand new lighting design brings with it new tools, techniques and challenges for our workshop team. Here at Tom Raffield we are constantly experimenting with our making processes - whether it's a new, innovative way to steam bend wood in isolated sections, or a more efficient and sustainable way to assemble multiple components together, if there's a chance to get creative you can guarantee our skilled team will be raring to learn.
Inspiration
Back and even better - our Keel design returns to the Comber Lighting Range in a variety of styles. Taking inspiration from the natural, spiralling forms that scatter our Atlantic tide lines, the Keel is a striking display of confident, modern design.
With six lighting designs within the Keel range, including a trio pendant cluster, wall, floor, and table lights, each lighting element of the Keel is made from a single, isolated section - a wide piece of oak or walnut timber that is arched by hand into a choreographed formation. Producing a funnel of diffused downlight, the Keel's inviting glow will bring warmth as bedside lights, function in space-saving hallways, and create drama over kitchen islands.
Prototyping
Before our workshop team can bring to life any new product ranges, they have to go through a series of design stages.
“Creating our entire product range from wood allows us to experiment freely and showcase the inspiration behind our ideas. Wood is incredibly pliable and flexible when steam-bent, making the possibilities for design truly endless.”
Tom Raffield
This initial design conception is led by Tom, who finds inspiration in everything from the natural environment around his woodland home to the nearby Cornish coastline. Tom often sketches his ideas and, once he has a few potential designs in mind, begins experimenting through making in the workshop with wood and other mixed mediums to create fluid, dynamic shapes. Each concept in Tom's design journey is captured: the shapes that work, the ones with flaws, and products that need to go back to the drawing board are all recorded.
Tom then shares these initial concepts with Katie and Callum, our design duo, who help bring Tom’s ideas into the next phase – further testing, detailed prototypes and CAD drawings. They spend some time testing the prototypes, experimenting with techniques and processes to decide which should be developed further to become the final product.
Once they have created their final versions of the products by hand, the new designs are drawn on a computer, which ensures each product is created with precise measurements, uniformity and is structurally sound prior to another round of testing.
With the final design ready to go, Callum and Katie train our workshop team on how to make the Keel, from start to finish.
Made up of a single, wide piece of oak or walnut wood, that is first cut to length and then bent by hand and wrapped around a jig specifically designed to create the shape, ensuring each keel is identical in size and shape. Once formed, the Keel is clamped in place before being trimmed and sanded by hand, to ensure the neatest of finishes.
Sprayed, sealed, and delivered
Our designs are sprayed with a matt finish, which protects the wood ensuring every Keel Light will last a lifetime of happiness – guaranteed.
Once the maker is happy with the design they have made, the Keel design is passed along to our finishing team. Each piece in our lighting range is sprayed with an eco-friendly, water-based varnish which provides a protective, natural finish. The team give the piece once final check for quality control before the design goes to our logistics team to be carefully packed up and sent to its forever home in its very own custom, plastic free, recyclable packaging.
Posted: 08.08.25