Tell me if you remember this classic ditty: “Slinky, Slinky, it’s such a wonderful toy. Slinky, Slinky, it’s fun for a girl and a boy.” My childhood was such—raised on a steady diet of such afternoon fare as Different Strokes and The Brady Bunch—that certain commercials have burned into my brain, for better or worse. In the case of that clever entertainment made of tightly coiled thin steel wire, I’d say it was for the better, for it’s allowed me to effectively characterize the recent Tekiō Bamboo Paper Lamp by designer Anthony Dickens.

Tekio lamp. Designed and Manufactured by Anthony Dickens.

The Tekiō Lamp is Simple, Sustainable, and Scintillating

This clever piece by designer Dickens—“a modular lighting system inspired by traditional Japanese ‘Chochin’ paper lanterns”—certainly shares the size, circumference, and silhouette of that iconic toy. And not only that, but you can twist it into nearly any form imaginable, without having to worry about accidentally dealing the proverbial death blow (a bent or twisted coil, which rendered Slinky sadly immobile).

The solution proposed by Tekiō is to carve it up, as it were, into quarter circle lengths. The size and shape lets users effectively combine the different modules into varied configurations—circles, snaking sine curves, corkscrewing helixes like super-sized strands of DNA, even a rounded triangle that recalls a boomerang.

The great aesthetic potential of Tekiō has been facilitated by Dickens’ smart design: a simple frame of thin plywood wrapped in translucent, luminescent paper. And true to the meaning of Tekiō (“adaptation” in Japanese), the lamps can be employed as pendants, wall lamps, floor lamps, or partitions: “flexible enough to adapt to any interior… its ability to transform spaces is only limited by your imagination.”

Tekiō works equally well with either energy-saving LEDs or long-lasting CFLs.

Via Inhabitat.

About the Designer: Fully dedicated to the auspicious proposition of “re-imagining everyday things,” designer Anthony Dickens spends his days designing and building his own lighting collection, in addition to collaborating on product development with such recognizable brands as Audi, Veuve Clicquot, and Red Bull. His aesthetically daring Angelpoise 50 Light was shortlisted for the Brit Insurance Design Awards and is presently part of the London Design Museum collection.