Shakuff Lighting On Sale

The philosophy of the Brooklyn-based blown glass design studio Shakúff Lighting is that it sees “creation as an act of collaboration.” Known for its bespoke pieces, Shakúff produces custom lighting through a simplified process that makes it easy for clients to create one-of-a-kind modern lighting solutions and chandeliers to fill their spaces with resplendent light and luminous effects.

Founded in 2007, Shakúff Lighting is the vision of Israel-born Joseph Sidof. Sidof spent his childhood imagining and making games with things he foraged, like shells, rocks and fruit pits. Sidof emigrated to the United States at age 18, where he got a job with his brother, blowing glass fashion jewelry. Through expanding on his skills and by creating partnerships in the design community, Shakúff Lighting was born.

Shakúff Lighting was informed by Sidof’s simple beginnings and the natural world, combined with further inspiration from the fine craftsmanship of the blown glass from Murano, Italy. The marriage of these influences has culminated in a sophisticated design approach that caters to prestigious clientele such as Lululemon, the GID Development Group, MGM Resorts International, Ann Sacks Tile and Stone and the Williamsburg Hotel. The studio has also partnered with many fellow creators and glass artists.

In addition to Shakúff Lighting’s installations for private and commercial clients, the design house seeks to preserve traditional artistry techniques. It supports a global initiative to maintain and share traditional methods of glass blowing, metalwork and other master craft skills.

On 1stDibs, find a selection of Shakúff Lighting pendant lights, floor lamps and wall sconces.

The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw sweeping social change and major scientific advances — both of which contributed to a new aesthetic: modernism. Rejecting the rigidity of Victorian artistic conventions, modernists sought a new means of expression. References to the natural world and ornate classical embellishments gave way to the sleek simplicity of the Machine Age. Architect Philip Johnson characterized the hallmarks of modernism as “machine-like simplicity, smoothness or surface [and] avoidance of ornament.”

Early practitioners of modernist design include the De Stijl (“The Style”) group, founded in the Netherlands in 1917, and the Bauhaus School, founded two years later in Germany.

Followers of both groups produced sleek, spare designs — many of which became icons of daily life in the 20th century. The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics. While Bauhaus principals Marcel Breuer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe created furniture from mass-produced, chrome-plated steel, American visionaries like Charles and Ray Eames worked in materials as novel as molded plywood and fiberglass. Today, Breuer’s Wassily chair, Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona chair — crafted with his romantic partner, designer Lilly Reich — and the Eames lounge chair are emblems of progressive design and vintage originals are prized cornerstones of collections.

It’s difficult to overstate the influence that modernism continues to wield over designers and architects — and equally difficult to overstate how revolutionary it was when it first appeared a century ago. But because modernist furniture designs are so simple, they can blend in seamlessly with just about any type of décor. Don’t overlook them.

The modern floor lamp is an evolution of torchères — tall floor candelabras that originated in France as a revolutionary development in lighting homes toward the end of the 17th century. Owing to the advent of electricity and the introduction of new materials as a part of lighting design, floor lamps have taken on new forms and configurations over the years. 

In the early 1920s, Art Deco lighting artisans worked with dark woods and modern metals, introducing unique designs that still inspire the look of modern floor lamps developed by contemporary firms such as Luxxu. 

Popular mid-century floor lamps include everything from the enchanting fixtures by the Italian lighting artisans at Stilnovo to the distinctly functional Grasshopper floor lamp created by Scandinavian design pioneer Greta Magnusson-Grossman to the Paracarro floor lamp by the Venetian master glass workers at Mazzega. Among the more celebrated names in mid-century lighting design are Milanese innovators Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, who, along with their eldest brother, Livio, worked for their own firm as architects and designers. While Livio departed the practice in 1952, Achille and Pier Giacomo would go on to design the Arco floor lamp, the Toio floor lamp and more for legendary lighting brands such as FLOS. 

Today’s upscale interiors frequently integrate the otherworldly custom lighting solutions created by a wealth of contemporary firms and designers such as Spain’s Masquespacio, whose Wink floor lamps integrate gold as well as fabric fringes. 

Visual artists and industrial designers have a penchant for floor lamps, possibly because they’re so often a clever marriage of design and the functions of lighting. A good floor lamp can change the mood of any room while adding a touch of elegance to your entire space. Find yours now on 1stDibs.