Dean Babin

Cobleskill

New York

12043

The inspiration for the Emmet Lamp stems from an appreciation for accent lighting that is both functional and artistic. The design process began with an exercise where I sketched a new lamp design every thirty seconds on Post-it notes until the pad was filled. The sketches for the Emmet Lamp stood out to me so I decided to move forward and bring it to life. Its name, “Emmet Lamp” is a play on the word “emit” and a nod to one of my favorite movies, “Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas”. My goals for the project were to 1) make a small accent lamp that could fit on a nightstand or shelf 2) have an adjustable brightness so the lamp could light up a room in the early evening and then be dimmed to a lower brightness before bedtime 3) to be versatile in that it could lay flat or be oriented in the upright position to take up less space 4) have a design that is pleasing to the eye when not in use. The Emmet Lamp’s curved spine is constructed via coopering which is also the traditional barrel making process. I then shape the lamp’s plexiglass diffuser and heat-bend its form over a custom template. In one of the attached photos, you can see the brass dimmer touch button that I recently added to its design. I make this button from scratch using brass rod stock that has high electrical conductivity. Most of the process for making this lamp was new to me as I had never worked in lighting before. A good amount of time was spent in the research and development phase before getting final sign-off on its technical wiring from a licensed electrician. I also had not done any coopering prior to this project so full scale drawings were particularly helpful in determining the angles of the staves in the lamp’s curved spine. I’ve attached one of the original drawings for this lamp which was helpful in determining the shape of the diffuser. In addition to the materials already mentioned, the other parts of this lamp include a UL certified LED ribbon, driver, dimmer switch and fabric cord. The LED ribbon wraps around an internal baltic birch plywood frame behind the diffuser. The fabric covered cord enters the lamp through a brass or aluminum channel which I machine from metal tubing stock. The lighter toned lamp in the attached photos was made from ash wood while the darker lamp was made from black walnut. Additional versions of this lamp were recently made from maple, oak and beech woods. These lamps have a durable and environmentally friendly plant oil based finish applied to them. I designed this lamp for an audience seeking unique accent lighting who also has an appreciation for craftsmanship. Thank you for your time and consideration!

I am the designer and builder of this object