Vår Lamp

What guided the idea of the Vår Lamp?

Ashley Valentine: I asked myself how to bring play and lighting together, and how to bring interaction to lighting rather than it just being a stagnant piece of furniture that lights up the room.

How did your design change throughout the process?

AV: My project was originally very flat and had a lot less dimension than the final design. The final design had a lot more depth and roundovers than the first one. Before, it was a flat flower shape, and I ended up making it 3D more than flat.

What was the biggest challenge you faced?

AV: Finding high-quality LED lights was really challenging. I wanted to focus more on the construction of the lamp base itself and not the lighting, and that was kind of a challenge to find lights that could meet the high quality that I wanted, and to make them work with the material that I was using.

What’re you most proud of about this project?

AV: I really enjoyed the way the wood grain came out through the CNC work. It really popped. I used a butcher block sort of method where I just glued a bunch of blocks together and then CNC'd it out, and I think that that really brought out a lot of character in the wood.