Dia Medium Jute Lampshade - Ink

The Dia in ink is the same coarse jute shade dyed to a deep blue black. It is a tapered drum, lined pale on the inside, and this is the medium: 18.5cm tall, 25.5cm across the top and 30.5cm across the base. The dye sits unevenly in a fibre this open, so the weave shows as lighter flecks through the dark and the surface has more movement in it than a plain dark fabric would.

Thirty centimetres is the width most ordinary table lamps are built around, so this is the size that will fit a lamp already in the room. In ink it changes what that lamp does: the dark jute holds the light in and sends it out of the top and bottom openings instead of through the weave, which turns a table lamp from something that glows into something that lights a specific patch of table and a specific patch of ceiling. On a pale base the contrast is the point; on a dark one the whole lamp recedes. It weighs 0.44kg.

Jute is a plant fibre, coarse and hard wearing, and it is woven and dyed before being formed over the frame, so the depth of colour and the grain differ from shade to shade. The Dia range runs from small to extra large in this ink and again in natural jute. No bulb, base or fitting is included.

How do I measure for a lampshade?

Measure across the widest part of the base, pick a shade wider than that, then check the height against the bulb so the fitting is hidden at sitting height.

Will a dark shade give less light?

Less through the shade itself. The dark jute keeps most of the light inside and sends it out of the open top and bottom, so you get a defined pool rather than an even glow.

How dark is ink?

A deep blue black, with the open weave showing through as lighter flecks in daylight. It reads nearer charcoal by day and darker at night.

How do I handle it?

Hold it by the fitting and never by the jute. A microfibre cloth, gently, is all it asks for.