Intended to create an extravagantly proportioned spotlight that could warm the greenish hue of early LEDs and create a more appealing luminosity, Copper shade is an over-sized, blow moulded and perfectly reflective globe that kick started the recent craze for copper in interiors the world over.
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The original Tom Dixon Copper Shade was born from a fascination with the hi-tech process of vacuum metallisation commonly used in producing sunglasses and space helmet visors.
Manufacturing & Material
Copper lights are created through a process of blow moulding and vacuum metallisation to achieve perfect spheres with abundant and unusual luminosity. Over several years we have worked with some forerunners of German engineering and manufacturing to develop these techniques and produce lamps that create the latest in reflectivity and transparency.
The intended aim of the original Copper was to produce a completely spherical, highly mirrored object. Through the use of injection blow moulding, a melted plastic polymer moulding is injected into a massive precision-made steel tool, inflated with compressed air and then cooled.
The perfect mirror finish of each pendant is then created by the highly technical process of vacuummetallisation. The polycarbonate shell is secreted in the interior of a metallic chamber, the air sucked out, and an immense electrical charge channelled through. With a bang and pop a thin strip of copper foil is vaporised into a fine mist of metallic particles that settles across the interior.