In vino veritas – The high-quality Upcycling Table Lamp illustris+ gives enlightenment
The designer Sven H. Ricken from Essen, Germany, had the enlightenment for his timeless table lamp illustris+ when he thought about the disposal of empty wine bottles in the waste glass. “The shape of a bottle is known to us all from the smallest childhood and accompanies us for a lifetime. It is perfect in form but is used only for the storage of the contents. Instead of always just throwing the bottles in the waste glass to make new bottles, I got the idea to let live the product and give it a new function.” says the talented designer. After a longer developmental period, then came the series illustris+.
In the table lamp illustris+ Upcycling and Design come together in the best quality. Emptied bottles of wine are combined with the wood of discarded church pews and made into lamps that are convincing in their quality and create a cozy and homely atmosphere. The production is done completely by hand and regionally, namely within a radius of 35 km of Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia.
In the conception Sven H. Ricken has thought through: The table lamp illustris+ is sustainable from head to toe:
The glass shade
Starting material are empty wine bottles that are regularly collected at several restaurants in Essen. The bottles are cleaned and freed from the label. In a medium-sized company that processes glass for the lighting industry, the bottles are hand cut. Here the bottle bottoms are clean cut and the cut edges sanded. Subsequently, the single bottle is manually sandblasted inside and “decorated” in colour. The applied lacquer is baked in the glass in a special furnace at high temperature. The paint used is non-polluting, solvent-free and water-based.
The wooden base
The wood used for the table lamp comes from discarded church pews and residues from the production of windows. One of the last traditional woodturning companies in the Ruhr area makes the lamp base from the wood residues (mahogany, teak, meranti). Then the pieces are oiled by hand with natural hard oil (certified according to EN 71 Part 3).
Electronics, cables and packaging
The lights are assembled by hand and provided with textile cords. “Contemporary” energy-saving bulbs with 5 watts are used for temperature and durability reasons. The packaging is made from recycled materials, of course.
During the offer period from 3 to 16 June 2014 the upcycling table lamp illustris+ is 15 percent cheaper.
