The Luminous world of Zonneke.com

How the story starts …It was actually an assignment during my Industrial Design studies. We had to combine a concept with an object. The object, a Volkswagen Beetle, was decided up front by the instructor, and the concept could be chosen by the student who in turn challenged the other students to guess what the concept was. I chose the concept of time. After the introductory class, we had to prepare some sketches at home, but I immediately made a VW Beetle out of clay and stuck two hands from an old clock on it. I was very satisfied with the creation since the other students could guess right away what my concept was. The instructor, on the other hand, saw things differently. This was, after all, the biggest assignment of the year. So, I went back to the drawing board. I then came up with a game that incorporated every element related to time including the most indispensable one, the sun. To truly integrate it into the project I wanted to create a 3 dimensional sun. My upstairs neighbor had a sun on her doorbell; the familiar images of a smiling face with bright rays all around. This inspired me to make the wavy sunbeams 3 dimensional so people could clearly recognize the image of the sun. I'm pleased to say it worked! In my original design, I built a sun in two pieces which were then glued together with a visible seam. This irritated me to no end. It took a lot of hard work to come up with the current design, but once I did I was really pleased with the results. Voila! The Light SculpturesEvery Piece exist of 2 separated parts; the shade and the lighting fixture.The shade being the sun or an other shape and the lighting fixture the iron/electrical part with the actual light source.The 2 pieces are hold together with an easy spring system, no screws or anything like that. Very easy and fast system without any tools required to assemble the pieces and change the lamp bulb. By the way, the pieces are delivered without light bulb, I learned this from other lighting manufactories for the simple reason that light bulbs are very delicate and the risk of delivering a piece with a broken light bulb is high. It’s bad advertisement and you have a wide range of choice for your client anyway.The shadesThey are made in my own workshop in Phuket Thailand. Each piece is completely created by hand, it’s a very time consuming process. I’m not going to explain to you in detail how the process works, first of all to safe you from a boring technical explanation, but also because I need to protect myself. I have my patents, but it’s better to prevent then to cure. The basic concept is to glue different layers of paper around moulds. The moulds are also a special story. I make them myself, also with an unique and patented technique. After many different steps, drying and pressing them, some more steps, drying and pressing some more … we have a surprising strong carton work of art in one single piece. It’s almost impossible to see were and how the different pieces are put together. Then it’s still not finished, we give them two layers of epoxy. Again by hand to ensure the perfect finishing touch. The epoxy makes the pieces even stronger, but the main reason is to make them water resistant. This is actually a good example of my consistent choice for quality over cheap junk. Epoxy is the improved version of polyester. Epoxy is 10 times more expensive then polyester. But it dries extremely hard and stays perfectly clear, while polyester tend to turn yellowish after some time and is not always perfectly solid.Now that I mentioned the strength of the pieces, let me explain with a little anecdote, in my workshop in Belgium the ceiling was about 4m high, I used to hang the pieces with a little hook on a wire about 3m high. One day when I was on the other side of the workplace the wire come loose and all the pieces fall down. This was the wire with my exclusive pieces. “Ooh my Buddha” I thought that all my exclusive pieces would be broken, but to my own surprise, there was only 1 piece a little bit damage. The others one’s you could never tell that they just dropped from 3m high. Believe my light sculptures are a lot stronger then you might give them credit for. One of the reasons is their flexibility, they just don’t break.There’s a very important difference in the technique between the sun and the moon. The sun is more about the shape and the moon is more about the drawing, and then the flame is more a combination of both of these unique features and then we have some more models … so it’s impossible to explain our technique in general.The most important difference between working in Belgium and Thailand is not just the labor cost, it’s the higher quality I’m able to deliver. Due to the high taxes in Belgium I was obliged to keep the pressure high to speed up the process and safe time. Now the first thing I tell my workers is that I really don’t care how long it takes them to make a piece, only the highest quality in every little detail matters. And it shows. Every single piece is absolutely perfect. And when small errors do occur, I simple destroy the piece. Fortunately that happens rarely.The lighting fixturesThe second part is made for us by a professional lighting factory, to ensure the best quality. It’s stainless steal, satin nickel plated and all CE/UL/CLS approved. The wires, switches and plugs are transparent, very trendy now and we have a ceiling covers included. The designs of the lighting fixtures are as basic as possible, so all the attention goes to the shades.To find the right factory took my very long time, before I made my choice I contacted over 300 different companies. With a 20 some, I had a long and very technical detailed communication and I went to Hong Kong and China to visit a few factories. Same like with the shapes, I didn’t choose the cheapest offer, but the company that could ensure me the best quality and service. This makes that my prices are not as ridiculous low as many people would expect, but then again the quality is of the highest level. Last but not least, this is not just a product, it’s the symbol of a new age, yet to come. This is my personal vision and the reason why I endure all difficulties to keep the good faith going and send the positive energy of the sun all over the world.“Everyone of us is part of a greater living entity. “Everybody needs some kind of vision or religion to give some meaning and understanding to the miracle of life. To me it’s the fact that our society has grown above us. Let me explain …“In biology class we all learn that life as we know it started with single-celled organisms. These reproduced endlessly, but once in a while an irregularity occurred and variations formed. Some of these variations joined together in symbiosis. In time this activity produced multi cellular organisms. Life evolved to a higher level.This went on and on and still does today. We are no longer just a collection of individuals; we're all part of a bigger picture. Life has grown to the next level, without most people knowing it. Certainly since the arrival of modern communication, our connections are so entwined, that we couldn't survive anymore without society. This fact brings a number of consequences with it. One of the effects is that we each have a lot of responsibilities, that we are required to follow certain laws, and that we must share most of our energy with the rest of society. Although absolutely necessary, it's not always easy. That's why I created "Zonneke”! By offering my vision of the warm power, the life source, and the positive energy of the sun, I hope to make more people happy in the world. Because we have to keep on going, each and every day.And after a busy day full of obligations it's nice to know the sun is waiting for you at home to lighten up your personal space.”

Comments? Questions? Email Here

© HowtoAdvice.com

How to Advice .com