Spotlight on: Cage Lighting Range
Our iconic Cage Lighting Range has been a firm favourite of ours for years. With steam bent ash spirals that somersault within a delicate birch dowel cage, our Cage Lighting Range sees freedom and constraint collide with dramatic impact. We caught up with our skilled team of designers and makers to learn more about how they handcraft this distinctive range.
Design inspiration
Inspired by steams of dappled sunlight that dance between tree bows in dense woodland, our Cage Lighting Range challenges traditional lighting options with the juxtaposition of its structured outer cages and inner spirals of twisting steam bent timber to create a mesmerising wooden lampshade.
Assembled by hand, each timber loop that follows the inner circumference of the Cage Pendant follows its own choreographed path and takes on a unique architectural form - making each finished wooden pendant unique, just like the tree bow that inspired it.
The making process
In order to create the outer shade of the Cage Lighting Range, custom-designed and sustainably sourced laser-cut birch ply plates are suspended between two jigs. The plates must be correctly aligned at the right height to allow the maker to thread over 400 birch dowels through the plates’ small pre-cut holes - a time consuming process that requires a huge amount of concentration and precision.
Next, using a specialist Japanese saw, the birch dowels are flush cut against the ply wood plates and exposed edges then sanded to create a smooth to the touch finish.
Lengths of sustainably sourced ash wood are then steamed and carefully wrapped around an aluminium pipe to form delicate wooden coils. Once cooled and dried for a minimum of twelve hours in our purpose-built drying room, these flowing, sculptural ash bends are expertly positioned and secured within the birch frame to give the illusion that they are suspended weightlessly inside.
Once assembled, each light is finished with an eco-friendly, natural matt varnish to seal it's natural wood grain.
"Our workshop team strive to create high-quality products, handcrafted from sustainably sourced materials and inspired by nature. Our hardworking team care deeply about each stage in the making process and ensure that our Tom Raffield ethos of innovation, craftsmanship and sustainability is at the helm of each and every product they make."
- Tom Raffield, Founder.
Transforming space
Our Cage Lighting Range showcases the craftsmanship and attention to detail of our skilled team of lighting makers. Designed to cast delicate yet high-impact shadows in any space, the Cage Lighting Range is a riot of energy by day and a shower of shadows by night.
Switched on or off, the Cage Pendant intrigues, enchants and will always be a conversation sparking design piece. Simultaneously delicate and tamed, yet wild and unruly, the Cage design adds drama and depth.
Perfectly suited to a living room, hallway or bedroom the Cage Pendant is a design that transforms space easily and effortlessly.
Posted: 26.02.20
Updated: 15.04.21