Totem stands on the table like a small monument: a column of untreated brass, left raw so that it deepens and warms wherever hands touch it. At its centre sits an iridescent glass element. The light works its way into that glass first — turned, split, faintly coloured — and returns to the room from the sides and the crown of the piece, a slow indirect glow that changes as you walk around it.

Made one at a time

The iridescent core came out of long experimentation. The glass is worked by hand through several separate stages, and the finish cannot be repeated exactly: each lamp keeps its own drift of green, blue and copper, so no two read the same. We build the brass frame around it in our workshop, set a flexible LED board behind the glass, and fit a plug driver with a dimmer on the cord that remembers the last level you chose.

One column, one core of glass, one quiet glow. Form follows patience.