Basket Cases

“Scaling up a cylinder is easy. Those can be custom-made to any size,” says James Dieter, the founder of Brooklyn, N.Y.-based dform, which makes lighting fixtures and screens. “But with the amount of design work that goes into making the basket saucer lamp, we needed to make standard sizes.” Dform’s lamps are laser-cut from laminated aspen or birch vener and come in four sizes (11”h x 30”w; 14”h x 36”w; 17”h x 42”w and 21”h x 52”w). Only the smallest version is available to the retail market (selling for $1795), but the other three are available to the trade.

“The sizes are based on what people are asking for,” says Dieter. “But if people start wanting them fifteen feet across, we will figure out how to do it.”