Tom Raffield’s Scots Light is made from 80 steam-bent ‘leaves’

Cornwall-based design Tom Raffield has launched a new wooden lampshade hand made from approximately 80 individually cut and steam-bent leaves of ash.

Inspired by a pinecone, the Scots Light is built around a laser-cut birch wood frame, to which the ash leaves are attached. “This piece involves great technical expertise and also a bit of luck,” Tom told coadg. “Working out how the frame would go together and how it would hold the leaves in place to create the Scots shape took a bit of time to suss out.”

Now they have worked it out, Tom says making this lights is a relatively simple process. “But it’s not without a bit of a thrill,” he says. “Each piece of steam bent wood has a mind of its own and each light therefore looks very organic and individual.”

Tom’s workshop is tucked away in the Trevarno Valley near Helston. “There are acres of beautiful, untouched and remote woodland in this valley – a rare thing in this part of Cornwall and we are lucky enough to own about seven acres of this land.” Within that plot is Tom’s home – an old gamekeepers cottage – and the workshop, office and showroom he and his team build five years ago, using trees that had fallen in a storm.

“The woodland is my main source of inspiration,” he says. “Would I be so lucky in finding ideas for my designs if I worked some where else? Perhaps not. I only need to step out of my front door and walk a short distance through the trees and an idea for a new design could be staring my in the face.”

The Scots Light is available in sustainably sourced ash, oak or walnut and as a large or standard-sized pendent and a wall light.

Tom’s last thoughts on the county he calls home? “Once you have lived in – or even visited – Cornwall you start to understand why people never want to leave. It is such a beautiful place… either that or they put something in the water!”