The Materials
Pleated Silk
Aqua Creations has been using our signature ‘Tusser Silk’ to create our sculptural lampshades for nearly 30 years. We make our silk in a traditional weaver’s village in south India, using silkworms which live in the forest. The moths are allowed to emerge from their cocoons naturally before the empty shells are soaked in boiling water to soften the silk. ‘Tusser Silk’ has a rich texture and natural deep, golden color, and is incredibly strong. Finally, we dye the silk in our studio using our signature range of colors, or digitally print it using our “L&LD Live & Let Dye” program.
Handmade Felt
The Apaya Family exemplifies Aqua Creations’ passion for textile research, and combines traditional felting techniques with modern lighting technology. Felt from wool is considered the oldest known textile and is made by matting, condensing and pressing fibers together. We love using this tactile natural material in our lamps, but we also like to innovate. Aqua Creations uses 3D Felt in our Apaya Ponyo and Apaya Tinka Floor Lamps, for which we blend wool and silk fibers together, and sometimes even use colored silk. The handcrafted wool sleeve is slipped over a transparent cylinder that evokes the natural form of an underwater coral reef.
CNC Wood Milling
We cut and shape our wooden elements using CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machines, which gives us pin-point accuracy in keeping with our core value of craftsmanship. Aqua Creations use two main types of wood: rich red Mahogany and the light, classic American Oak.
Origami Paper
Origami – from the Japanese words oru, meaning fold, and kami, meaning paper – is the ancient art of folding paper. Origami paper must be as thin as possible, but tough enough to hold its shape, and it must always be cut in exact squares.
We collaborated with origami artist Ilan Garibi to design a unique origami paper lampshade for our Molecules Family collection. The design features intricate, tessellated molecules. To make the origami shade, we begin with a blank sheet of paper that is folded by hand into tessellated molecules, with no cuts. Origami paper perfectly diffuses soft light and is strong enough to hold its intricate shape.
Webbed Polymer
The cocooning material and technique was originally developed by the US military and is a favorite with lighting designers. George Nelson used this material for his iconic 1952 lamps, and we use it with our own, including our Mimosa and ToTeM collections.
Our cocooning polymer lighting fixtures are made by taking the lamp’s metal or laser-cut wooden structure and spraying it with ‘cocoon’ polymer to create a light diffuser. The result is a soft luminosity that can transform the character of an interior in an instant.
Responsive RGB LED
The term ‘Responsive RGB LED technology’ might not roll off the tongue, but it is shaking up the world of lighting design. Aqua Creations has adopted this new technology to develop our next generation of immersive lighting designs, which connect to the Internet of things.
The latest research into the field of Light Therapy identified the correlation between wavelength of light – light color temperature (kelvin) – to health, tiredness and productivity. These factors vary from one person to the next. Aqua Creations’ Responsive RGB LED Lighting Family is designed to be ultra-personal. With its emphasis on wellness, it can be programmed to provide individuals with the correct amount of light and the optimal light color temperature.
A small computer is installed inside each lamp with a WiFi module. This technology allows the user to dim the light’s brightness from 0.1-100% as well as control the color spectrum (in white light and color mode). Users can load images and motions directly to the lamp’s memory. This highly customizable lighting technology can be integrated with third party control systems in the home, office or shared workspace using a desktop web application or by mobile app.