La LZF Lamps, the Spanish company specializing in wood veneer lighting, presents its new Life-Size Collection at Euroluce in Milan, from 14th to 19th April. This collection of sculptural pieces is born out of the desire of LZF Lamps’ founders, Mariví Calvo and Sandro Tothill, to collaborate and innovate via daring projects with artists and craftsmen of different disciplines. The story of the Life-Size collection started a few years ago when Mariví and Sandro had been studying a new way of diffusing light through the use of overlapping rectangular squares of wood veneer. They then put on a show using illuminated walls made up of over 4000 pieces of wood. The effect of these walls reminded them of the scales of a fish, hence the dubbing of this effect “Koi Fabric.

Later in New York, in collaboration with Inocuo The Sign, a Motion Graphics film recreated a three-dimensional Koi inspired by the translucent scale fabric with which Mariví and her team at LZF were working on, with such passion. As related by the creative team at LZF Lamps: “after dozens of sketches, Koi began taking on a recognisable shape. At the film presentation at Euroluce in Milan in 2011, we fell in love with the character created by Inocuo The Sign, so the next phase was inevitable: we had to try to recreate the Koi character from the film short into something tangible, a real life size illuminated light fixture that defied gravity”.

Five years later, LZF Lamps finally unveils the result of their intensive technical research, working hand in hand with a variety of craftspeople and artists to present their new creation, at the crossroads between art and design, to people with an interest in unique pieces. Thus, Koi Fish is the first piece of the Life-Size Collection, an innovative collection of unique sculptural creations. In pavilion 11, stand C22 at Euroluce in Milan, Koi Fish will be joined by other pieces from the new collection, such as the Funny Farm animals by the illustrator Isidro Ferrer and Dandelion by Burkhard Dämmer, among others. The Valencian company LZF Lamps, which has been linked with crafts and wood ever since its foundation, brings yet another innovative collection which is sure to attract the attention of the buyers with the most demanding tastes.

Twenty years ago Mariví Calvo and Sandro Tothill stumbled upon a wonderful idea for a diffusing material for some lamps they wanted to make for their home; this material was wood veneer. It wasn’t the first time that a lamp had been made out of wood, but LZF Lamps is the first company to specialize and base all their production on this material. In fact, it was so important for LZF Lamps that they patented their own ecofriendly treatment for this natural material so it could be used in a whole variety of ways.

Timberlite® is the name they have given their treated veneer, a spectacular way of looking at light through wood. The veneers of LZF Lamps are selected to give the best wood grain effects when illuminated and all have been sourced from forests certified by the Forest Stewardship Council – FSC. Nothing comes close to the beauty of these veneers as a diffusion material and no other veneer treatment gives the strength and the protection to the material without sacrificing the delicacy and subtleness that this natural material communicates when illuminated.

Producer: LZF Lamps
Koi by Inocuo.The Sign & LZF LAB
Elephant & Fish by Isidro Ferrer & LZF LAB
Artisan: Manolo Martín
Photography: Santiago Relanzón