Japanese studio Nendo has teamed up with Taniguchi Aoya Washi, a traditional Japanese paper company which is famous for their 3-D paper molding technique, to create a lighting collection. Washi is made by passing fine screens through a bath of mulberry pulp and water to collect the pulp, then by drying the screens and peeling off the new paper sheets. Rather than pasting sheets of washi together to create forms, the company uses the same process to create beautiful seamless forms that are three-dimensional from the start.
After experimenting with dyeing the forms in two steps as they were being shaped, Nendo’s design team realized that they could create a lampshade whose exterior and interior surfaces are of different colours. In other words, they could use Taniguchi Aoya Washi’s process to make lampshades whose dark or bright exterior surface is accompanied on the interior by the kind of light, reflective colour necessary for light diffusion. At the request of the client, the bi-color washi lamp has been designed as a stackable unit to keep distribution and storage costs minimal.
The bi-color washi lamp is sold exclusively at Seibu department stores in Japan.
all images © AKIHIRO YOSHIDA