Great Scots – the story behind the light
A pine cone, an acorn, an upside-down asparagus tip, a pineapple, an artichoke…we’ve heard them all. No matter what the Scots Pendant reminds you of, there's no debate that its design is reminiscent of forms found all around us in the natural world.
Since its inception the Scots Lighting Range has become integral to the Tom Raffield collection and its eye catching, organic wooden armour a talking point among many.
Both the standard and large size Scots Pendants took centre stage at Heal’s Festival of Light, Orange Square Belgravia for London Craft Week, our very own Pop Up Shop at 67 York Street in Marylebone for London Design Week and additionally, at Port Eliot Festival last summer.
The king of up-cycling
The Scots Lighting Range was originally developed as a way to transform the by-products of other Tom Raffield lights into new designs and recycle the wood waste in our lighting workshop.
*Prior to the Scots Lighting Range all wooden offcuts were used to stoke the log burner in our Grade II listed showroom!
"The Scots Lighting range is our greenest, most up-cycled collection"
- Tom Raffield, Founder.
Tom says: "We really wanted to create a sustainable light that could make use of the smaller petals of wood left over from our Skipper and Urchin Lights. There were so many little petals of wood lying around our workshop that were perfectly reusable but just too small to be incorporated into a separate shade. We hate wasting any of our natural materials, so we came up with the Scots design as a way to creatively reuse any offcuts and further reduce our footprint".
In numbers
The Scots Lighting Range comprises of two pendants (standard and large) and a Wall Light.
All the Scots Lights are available in our three popular wood types: Ash, Oak and Walnut.
The standard Scots Pendant is made up of ninety-nine wooden petals (the large one-hundred and seventy-six) that are cut to sixteen centimetres in length and assembled onto a birch, laser cut frame with either eighteen or thirty-two fins – depending on the shade size.
Each individual light is given two coats of eco-friendly, natural matt varnish to both strengthen the design and seal the wood grain.
The making process
The first stage in making a Scots Pendant, no matter the size, is to construct the frame from several individual components of laser cut birch ply.
This internal framework consists of a branded top plate, cog, support ring and two types of alternating fins which intricately piece together to form a strong, supportive foundation for the shade to be built from.
Once the frame is assembled, the required number of adjoining petals of ash, oak or walnut wood are counted, carefully measured, cut and hand sanded by the craftsman until smooth to the touch. The Scots frame is then flipped upside down and the lengthy construction process can begin.
Starting with the top ring, each alternating fin is filled with a corresponding petal and built up in weaving, tessellating layers to create an overlapping aesthetic. Once the whole frame has been filled, an angled petal is added to the final rung of each wooden fin to create a tapered edge.
The whole light, both inside and out, is then finished with an eco-friendly varnish to give a satin matte finish and protect the raw wood.
Centre Stage
Due to the pointed, directional congregation of its petals, each Scots Pendant creates great task lighting suitable for a stairway, hallway or dining set up that needs a sufficient amount of down light.
Choose Ash wood for a pinky luminosity that will allow light to permeate through the wooden petals, Oak for a golden hour glow that will bathe and add warmth to any space or Walnut to draw the eye and add drama in abundance.
Reinvent your space. Create intimacy. Evoke nature.
Posted: 16.02.18
Updated: 16.04.21