Helios Pendants

These gorgeous pendant lights are called Helios Pendant lights and designed by Jeff Goodman for his jGoodDesign firm. They are lollipop shaped and made from hand-blown glass and finished with natural aluminum.

Here's the blurb from Jgooddesign.com;

Sensuous, fluent curves. Reminiscent of the sun.

Flattened form bulges in the center, allowing for the bulb. Sparkles of light are refracted in concentric circles by the bulging glass. The visible hardware and filament are skewed in an optical illusion.

The glass is hand-blown into a sphere, then flattened into a lollipop form while very hot. The form is then kept “cool” while glass is dropped on either side and blown into a bubble.

Each one is unique and signed by the artist.

Hand-made in New York City. Eco-Friendly.

LED Lighting for Dining

Here's an original idea for LED lighting.

This is a home-made LED lit dining table. It has a frosted glass top lit by 448 multicolored LEDs that respond, in a complex and gentle fashion, to input generated by motion above the table while people are eating.

Lenore, the creator gives us the details;

"The LEDs are controlled by a 16-node 1-D analog computer network. Each node has an amplified photodiode that senses changes in ambient light above its region of the table. An analog integrator (memory) averages that signal along with input from its neighbors, and the resulting signal is used to drive one of two strands of 14 LEDs (depending on polarity) with intensity that depends on the integrated value. Each node consists of one photodiode, one quad op-amp IC, nine resistors, and four capacitors that we hand-soldered onto a tiny piece of plain perfboard. We mounted the nodes to sheets of masonite pegboard, such that the output LEDs fit through the holes. After (a dozen or so evenings of) soldering, the pegboard with its electronics and a power supply was set into a stained-wood table frame that we made out of birch and poplar, and topped with glass recycled from a desk top."

Funky Pendants from FontanaArte

These very funky high-tech pendants are called "Duplex" by FontanaArte. They were designed by Carlo Tamborini. The diffuser is made from methacrylate and available in blue, red or satin white. A polished steel raceway attaches the fixture to the ceiling.