Simone LeAmon at DesignEX 2013

MERGING INNOVATION WITH TRADITION – A CONTEMPORARY MAKEOVER OF THE ICONIC BALLERINA LAMPSHADE

Simone LeAmon unveiled two new feature lamps: Prima Ballerina and Petit Ballerina at DesignEX, Australia’s premier interiors, design and architecture event on Thursday 30th May at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre.

Merging innovation with tradition Simone’s new lighting products for Australian lighting manufacturer Rakumba are a theatrical reworking of the iconic ‘ballerina’ lampshade. In two spectacular versions – Prima Ballerina and Petit Ballerina, LeAmon worked closely with the Rakumba craftswomen to pair their traditional knowledge and techniques in shade making with an innovative LED lighting assembly. Prima Ballerina and Petit Ballerina are the result of LeAmon’s second collaboration with Rakumba. With a heritage in hand crafted lampshades Rakumba is one of Australia’s oldest lampshade manufacturers. With a passion for local manufacturing LeAmon draw on the narrative of the iconic shade to demonstrate the skill of the Rakumba craftswomen. Her aim of re-contextualising their traditional skills for a contemporary design market employed the smarts of the product development division at Rakumba. A radical LED solution was investigated and developed in-house to reflect the latest in lighting technology.

Simone says of the project:

“Amongst other things manufacturing is about people, but we often forget this. Inspired by the Rakumba staff I set out to design lighting products to speak of the expertise and work histories of these wonderful people. Standing over two metres tall Prima Ballerina demands the best of the Rakumba craftswomen and Petit Ballerina is a distillation of everything we have learnt over the project – the shade, the stand and lamp assembly, every aspect of the design and make has been resolved with extraordinary care and attention”.