“Bi-Color Washi” Lampshade by Nendo

Taniguchi Aoya Washi, a traditional Japanese paper company located in Tottori Prefecture in western Japan, is the country’s only domestic producer of three-dimensional washi. Nendo use their unique process to create lampshades that play with colour and light.

From the designer: Washi is made by passing fine screens through a bath of mulberry pulp and water to collect the pulp, then by drying the screens and peeling off the new paper sheets. Rather than pasting sheets of washi together to create forms, the company uses the same process to create beautiful seamless forms that are three-dimensional from the start.

After experimenting with dyeing the forms in two steps as they were being shaped, we realized that we could create a lampshade whose exterior and interior surfaces are different colours. In other words, we could use Taniguchi Aoya Washi’s process to make lampshades whose dark or bright exterior surface is accompanied on the interior by the kind of light, reflective colour necessary for light diffusion.

And this was a first for washi lightshades. As requested by the client, the shades can be stacked to keep distribution and storage costs to a minimum.