A moon on a cable

Stella 02 keeps its source out of sight. The bulb sits deep inside a hemisphere, hidden from every angle below the rim, and the shade answers by glowing on its own: light falls onto a deliberately uneven interior and scatters, so one small source reads as many. What finally reaches the table is soft, even and slightly unpredictable.

We line each interior by hand. Sheets of gold, silver or copper leaf follow the craters and ridges of the surface, and because no two shells are shaped alike, no two reflections are either. The same lamp can burn warmer or cooler depending on how the leaf settled that day. Outside, the form stays matt black and disciplined. Aluminium carries the smaller diameters, fibreglass the largest, on a nickel-plated base with a steel spoon holder beneath. The E27 LED dims down to almost nothing.

It asks to be seen from below. Switch it on, and the ceiling goes quiet.