Culture Shrink – Culture Corporation
Design: Claus Bjerre, Ditte Hammerstrøm and Jeremy Walton (Culture Corporation)
Sponsor: Eltech Components, Philips, Bella Centre, Greenline, Brilliant and KS Lampskærme.
The material is polyolefin that shrinks when heated. The most common use of the material is for electrical insulation. Insulation is an important element of lighting that is most often disregarded and hidden.
The polyolefin comes as a tube and it is not readily available in very large diameters. For the lampshades we cut the tubes of polyolefin to create sheets, these were then sewn together to create a large tube near to the size and shape of the frame.
The frame together with the polyolefin was then boiled in the largest saucepans of water we could find. This was a delicate operation, one out three would split during boiling. The material is extremely soft when hot, coupled with the perforated holes from the sewing and the strength of the material shrinking it took practice and patients and more sewing. Once the material cools it becomes quite hard and robust.
It is possible to see in this photo, that the material does not shrink uniformly, it is quite charming that the green and yellow stripes are not precise, but they wobble. It depends where the polyolefin grips the inner material. It is very evident on this lamp, yet it also does it on the lampshades and stems.
- Material: Polyolefin.
- Production / Technique: Thermal shrinking. Sewing.
- Dimensions: vary
- Dissemination: Scandinavian Furniture Fair, 2003: Culture Shrink. Lighting zone. Copenhagen.
- Relating projects: Culture Corporation, Objects of desire, Shelf Portraits.