Shining a light on a disappearing skill
- Anna makes lampshades by hand
- She has a dark room for testing the lamps
- Some lampshades require 3-4,000 stitches
Anna's first lampshade took her two months to complete, on her kitchen table. Inspired by the pleated traditional costumes of the Bregenzerwald, it caught the eye of a hotel owner from the region. Realising the demand for this disappearing skill, she started to sell lamps from the boot of her car, then set up her workshop and retail space in 2014. Here she welcomes clients as sensitive and passionate about the spatial and emotional significance of light as she is. Beyond the quality of light, each shade has a story. She also revives the appreciation and savoir-faire of lampshade making through collaborations with artists and designers
Discover her work
INTERVIEW
Due to mass production, it has become impossible to take classes on the subject in Austria. Knowledge is mainly harboured by a few elderly ladies who still sew traditional soft lampshades and linings by hand.
My customers – they are exceptional. Nowadays, most people buy lamps for their design, not the quality of the light. Yet the inner workings of each lamp can completely alter a room. You also have to consider the colour of the room’s ceiling, or whether it is facing east or west.
I have to use all my charm to beg for scraps of vellum, which nowadays is nearly exclusively used for drums and bookbinding. A large lampshade might require the skin of an entire calf. The way it diffuses light is incomparable.
I always seek out local artisans, like a crêpe-linen weaver using traditional looms, or a Lodenmill in Steiermark. I am an active member of the Werkraum Bregenzerwald, and deeply convinced we can only be strong together.
Anna Claudia Strolz
Lamp maker
Bregenz, Austria
Recommended by Meisterstrasse Handmade
AVAILABILITY
Tuesday to Friday 10:00-12:30 / 14:00-18:00; Saturday 10:00-13:00 (first Saturday of the month until 16:00)
PHONE
+43 557443563
LANGUAGES
German, English
