ORIGAMI LAMP
My lamp is ispired by the chinese rice paper lanterns and by their soften light.
In order to reproduce this effect, I chose the rice paper (washi) as material, reinforced by a metal structure in order to maintain the shape of the lamp.
I started from the grid at 60°, I have rolled the piece of paper and close it in order to form a cylinder. Than I gave the shape to the structure.
The base is hypothesized in wood material in order to be in line with the style of japanese lamps.
MATERIAL
Washi is the Japanese word for the traditional papers made from the long inner fibres of three plants — kozo, mitsumata and gampi.
Other fibres such as hemp, abaca, rayon, horsehair, and silver or gold foil are some-times used for paper or mixed in with the other fibres for decorative effect.
METHODS OF PRODUCTION
Branches of the (kozo, gampi or mitsumata) bush are trimmed, soaked, the bark removed, and the tough flexible inner bark separated, cleaned, then pounded and stretched.
The addition of the pounded fibre to a liquid solution produces a paste-like substance when it is mixed.
It is this "paste" which is shaked until spread on a bamboo mesh screen to form each sheet of paper.
The sheets are piled up wet, and later laid out to dry on wood in the sun or indoors on a heated dryer.
As Japan rushes with the rest of the world into the 21st Century, and more modern technologies take over, machines produce similar-looking papers which have qualities very different from authentic washi.
FEATURES
Washi feels soft and creates a feeling of warmth in the viewer.
Since the fibres are left long and pounded and stretched rather than chopped, washi has a deceptive strength.
Kozo and mitsumata are naturally translucent fibres, a quality specific to paper from the East. As such, it is used regularly for the transmission of light.
Since the fibres position themselves at random, there is no real grain to washi. This gives the paper a resistance to creasing, wrinkling and tearing.
