The Illions Collection
Our Illions design is influenced by the Arts and Craft Movement which characterises the late Victorian era around the 1880s. Its leading light, William Morris, was a champion of the joy of craftsmanship and the natural beauty of materials in the face of growing industrialisation. He was determined to keep quality, design and skill at the heart of making. We hope our products embody his philosophy.
Central to our Illions collection is the Illions lamp design with three parallel and conjoined shafts of different heights, standing on a rectangular footplate. Its geometry evokes the lines in Charles Rennie Macintosh's' designs; and other features in our Illions range capture the essence of the Arts and Crafts Movement whether it’s the copper rivets on the hand-rolled hoods of our Illions spotlights or the hand-forged backplates and handblown glass shades of our wall lights.
Nigel’s Illions design incorporates another element of inspiration too – and this came during a walk along the beach in Whitby! It was the ripples in the sand left behind by the receding tide that inspired the look and feel of the decorative plates which Nigel and the team create in the workshop and apply to all our Illions products. These are made through a process called fullering.
Fullering involves hammering and stretching the steel to create a random linear texture in the metal. The fullered plate is then treated with our natural black beeswax finish and the irregular markings left by our hammer strokes are buffed, to highlight the brighter tones of the underlying metal. Finally, the plate is coated in a clear lacquer to preserve the contrasts in pattern and give a matt satin finish.
The range is named after the small hamlet of Illions, which is close to our forge.
Nigel’s fullering also features on a few associated products such as the Greenmoor and Fullshaw lights, which are also featured here.