Fan Lamp by Mema Designs

Mema Designs has used the time since debuting its “Ukhamba” lamp prototype at “Africa is Now” last year to refine the Fan Lamp: each one individually handmade.

Johannesburg-based studio Mema Designs has been hard at work in producing its latest range of high-quality lighting products. The standout design of the Ukhamba collection is the delicate yet robust Fan Lamp. 

The Fan Lamp is handmade with a fine woven aluminium fabric. For Mema Designs, the choice of material used for its creation was crucial as that set its design apart from other products on the market. The material has a dynamic, reflective characteristic that gives the piece a weightless, veil-like quality. As each design is handmade, no two lamps are identical, making each a collector’s item. 

The Fan Lamp is an extension of designers Ari Geva and Sian Eliot of Mema Designs’ Ukhamba lamp prototype, which was selected as one of the objects on display at Design Indaba Expo’s “Africa is Nowexhibition in 2014. Since then, Mema Designs has spent a year designing and manufacturing the tools necessary to make the lamps in a repeatable way.

As the product is still handmade, by using our custom-made tools, the process becomes more efficient and precise, says Eliot.

The tools are designed to assist the process of forming and moulding the metal for the lamp’s shade: “As the material can only be formed once, our tools are used to bend the wire accurately and to crease the metal sheets.”

The Fan Lamp will be unveiled at Design Indaba Expo 2015.