Artisanal crafts are slowly becoming more recognised throughout the world of design. Glass blowing has been around for about two thousand years, and you might be forgiven for thinking that it holds no more secrets to glass smiths. It now turns out that hand blown glass can be combined with high-tech, 21^st century lighting technology in exceptional ways.

Swedish designer Mattias Stenberg was looking for a way to display the best qualities of hand blown glass. This type of glass is cooled over hours or days to prevent it from cracking, and the finished product is very strong, and can be vibrantly coloured too. However, blown glass products are often stored in cupboards and rarely used. His challenge was to design a shape that would show off artisanal glass in a sturdy, everyday object.

The result is the Demi lamp. The glass structure has two symmetrical halves with rounded ends. These are lit up from the inside by a ring of LEDs, which are pointed at the middle of the lamp. This lighting helps to show of the slightly undulating structure of the glass.

To keep the lamp’s glass from damage, an aluminium fitting ring is placed between the two halves. The blown glass diffuses and reflects the LED light, making the whole piece glow as if the glass itself is lit up.

The lamp comes in both smaller and larger versions, of 22 cm or 35 cm high. They are also produced in four colour combinations, clear with clear, white with clear, green with clear, and green with green.

The lamp’s light has a temperature of 3000 K and a luminosity of 140 lm, so that it gives off a soft, warm light.

The lamp is on display at the Design House Stockholm. Images and info via the designer, Mattias Stenberg.