Announcing the Vellum Collectionof Bespoke Luminous Artifacts
Vellum is a series of nine luminous artifacts developed over two years in our Paris workshop. Each piece is cut from alabaster and set in patinated bronze, made to hold light rather than emit it.
A Light That Does Not Glare
The collection began with a refusal. We could not find a fixture that lit a room without becoming the brightest object in it. Alabaster, cut thin enough, diffuses a source so completely that the stone itself appears to be the origin of the light.
Nine Pieces, One Block
All nine artifacts were cut from a single alabaster block quarried in Volterra. Because they share a bed, they share a vein structure, and a room holding three of them reads as one continuous geological gesture rather than a set of separate purchases.
Bronze That Will Move
Every setting is cast in bronze and left unlacquered. Within a year the handled surfaces will polish and the recesses will darken. The fixture you install is not the fixture you will own in a decade, and that was the intention from the first sketch.
Thickness as the Only Dial
There is no dimmer. Brightness is controlled entirely by how thin the alabaster is cut at a given point, which means each piece has a fixed and unchangeable character. Choosing a Vellum artifact is choosing a permanent quality of light.
Made for Negative Space
The collection was dimensioned against our own interiors, where a wall is more likely to be empty than occupied. Each piece is small enough that it never competes with the architecture, and heavy enough that it never reads as an accessory.
The Two-Year Delay
Vellum was scheduled for release last spring. We withdrew it because the first bronze patination formula shifted green in humid conditions. Eighteen months of reformulation was preferable to shipping an artifact that would age dishonestly.
Available by Commission
The nine pieces are not stocked. Each is cut to the sightlines of the specific room it will occupy, which means a lead time of roughly seven months and a conversation with the workshop before any dimension is fixed.
What Comes After Vellum
The workshop has already begun testing basalt, which behaves entirely differently under a light source. Whether it becomes a second collection depends on whether it can be made to hold light with the same restraint.
