Artecnica

has an eye for spotting designers with a crafty, sophisticated edge. It’s in their DNA – and apparently, is magnetic to other designers with the same, very unusual detailed vision. Although Paula Arntzen is an independent designer who actively creates several of her pieces exclusively with Artecnica, her Paula’s Paper Processes collection of one-of-a-kind paper lamps were inspired by sculptural experiments where she used colored strips of paper to come up with interesting shapes.

Paula’s Paper Processes. Designed by Paula Arntzen.

Paula’s Paper Processes Lamps are a Collection of One-of-a-Kind Lights by Paula Arntzen Using Layered Strips of Paper.

This time, instead of using transparent paper with a print, post-consumer coated Tyvek, or foil, the lighting-focused designer from The Netherlands uses a simple, high quality paper. Nothing more, nothing less. In the Paula’s Paper Processes series of lamps, the large looping pieces of paper are separated slightly to diffuse the light coming from within.

Using layers of paper to create volume and uniqueness, Arntzen builds out the lampshades by hand in a slow, sure fashion. Although the paper is not recycled like Tyvek in her Grand Trianon or Petit Trainon lamps, she decided on nice paper for a simple, low-cost, lightweight material from which to create each of them differently than the rest.

Various colors, shapes, and layered possibilities create the handmade lamps by Dutch designer Paula Arntzen that hang from the ceiling like robust paper lanterns.

About the Designer: Paula Arntzen is a Netherlands-based designer who creates mostly lighting fixtures but also has dabbled in furniture and product design. Currently, Arntzen works in Arnhem at her own studio and continues to push the limits of lightness, color and shaping. Simply put, as her website states of Arntzen’s work, “Her designs find their origin in a fascination for grand forms and qualities of a material.”