Ikat lampshades we love: our top 3 favorite stores
Handloom ikat fabrics are widely used in fashion and for soft furnishings in interiors. One niche area in interior decoration in which ikat fabrics are not used so widely is lighting. Today we would like to share with you a few examples how human genius used bold ikat patterns for creating some of the most amazing ikat lampshades. Here is our top 3 favorite stores which have been using ikat fabrics in their collections.
“Lampshades are to a room what shoes are to an outfit”
Rita Konig
Melodi Horne
We have been following Melodi Horne for a few years now. By now we are true fans of her work. Her lampshades are larger-than-life statements, not just lighting objects. We love how Melodi Horne pairs bold ikat patterns with even bolder, often strikingly contrasting linen back lining. Ikat fabrics used by her are from Uzbekistan (sourced through Turkey, why not through us? 🙂 ). They also have beautiful, almost sculptural lamp bases which add a lot of interest to her lighting.
“A lampshade does not need to be neutral and simply functional. It should be a statement piece in any given space, it has the power to create a mood, an ambiance and colour is of paramount importance”.
Melodi Horne
We fully agree, especially on a color being of paramount importance.
Pooky
Pooky’s online store (www.pooky.com) is all about spreading light and lighting. They offer contemporary lighting as well as more traditional lampshades. Their selection of ikat lamp shades includes both ikat prints (stated clearly as “ikat print” in a product description) as well as lampshades made using real handloom woven ikat fabrics. Here is an example of a gorgeous Jaggery lamp with empire shade in black and white ikat by Mathew Williamson for Pooky.
Nushka
Nushka (www.nushka.co.uk) is a UK based home furnishing store powered by a husband-and-wife duet. The store is packed with eclectic finds from around the world, many of which are from our own Uzbekistan which is rich in its textile traditions. For their lampshades they use handloom woven cotton sllk ikat fabrics from Uzbekistan.
Here is a link to their ikat lampshades for you to check out and admire.
It is interesting how Melodi Horne, Pooky and Nushka are all UK based. Does this mean that outside of the UK a niche for using ikat fabrics for lampshades is pretty much wide open? If so and we can help you fill that niche. We will do further research into Americas and Australia to report on their use of ikat fabrics for lamp shades in a separate post.
Here at UzbekAlive we offer a great selection of authentic cotton silk ikat fabrics which are available for sale and shipment immediately. We also work directly with artisans and we can custom make ikat fabrics. If you wish to discuss a custom order, please contact us here.
