Willowlamp
Product Design in Cape Town

Willowlamps are a fusion of organic and traditional forms with high tech elements without compromising on a highly personalized level of craftsmanship.
Our designs vary from the fanciful, ornate shapes of Art Nouveau or Victorian design to the clean lines of the modernist tradition.
Willowlamp is constantly reinventing itself, designing and creating fresh, innovative designs that challenge conventional ideas about lighting.

Celebrate the major new 2018 collection at our exclusive launch Though we are in the depths of a bleak and grey winter, our workshop has been frenetic as we began work on an exciting and expansive new collection of ready-made pieces. It’s a new client who was introduced through our UK agent, Cameron Peters Fine Lighting. At first they gave us a fairly loose brief with free reign to develop the design concept. They supplied us with some conceptual mood boards and an organic conceptual drawing of two massive ceiling mounted installations in a large, open-plan dining and lounge room. The larger of the two installations was to be positioned above the lounge zone and the smaller above the dining room table. They were interested in a number of concepts including our Mandala design and we went through a number of ideas but eventually the client saw our Faraway Tree design and fell in love with it, so the project went in that direction. The design then evolved into a series of spiralling and interwoven tree branches suspended at multiple levels like a gnarled and knotted enchanted forest. This project was started way back in 2014 and was supposed to have been completed within one year. However the project was delayed a number of times from the client’s side and the completion date was pushed back by years! All willowlamps are made from the same set of materials and design methodology including ball chain, laser-cut stainless steel frame and our patented notch solution which allows such versatility. There are a number of customisations, however, and special, concealed LED lighting systems, which are independently programmed to adjust and control the lighting. What were some of the biggest challenges you faced on this project? And each layer of branches is lifted independently and attached to the tree branches. The middle tree branch weights about 500kg and has to be bolted together on the ground and then hoisted into position via a series of pulleys. The client didn’t want to see any light source other than the LED edge lights wrapping around the branch. We had to find a special G4 LED lamp that was flush mounted with the top of the tree branch that would illuminate the upper canopies but remain invisible to the eye. We had to find a way to mount the upper tree branch to precise fixing points under a suspended ceiling and anchor it to the main structure above. We worked in collaboration with the architects and engineers to develop the solution to this.