...The Lamp Journey --

Paper and lamp -- it seems like a lovely combination, don't you think? Let me tell you a bit more how the two have become one in my work, my beautiful origami lamps...


As an artist, I think I have established quite an intimate relationship with papers and understand their nature quite well (their thinkness, weight, texture, color tone, origin, etc). For years of traditionally painting and drawing and I work mostly with watercolor, I just know which paper is best for my work. And each kind of paper is good only for certain thing or certain effect. It depends on what the artist wants his/her work to look like actually.

​And as the home maker, crafter and decorator, I've always used lamps as part of my work and remodified quite a number of them also. I would strip them and study them and transform them until they became another lamp that I had in mind. Yes, I can say that I always have a thing with lamps.

Just like furnitures, at one point of my life, I realized I had collected a lot of lamps! I had them for my work and personal use. 'My beautiful house needs beautiful lamps and my work also needs beautiful lamps', I always thought so. So I ended up having a lot of them. Be it vintage lamps, antique lamps, retro lamps, floor or pendant or wall lamp... old or new, made from wood, paper, fabric, plastic, glass, crystal, enamel, ceramic..etc, you name it, I had it all! It was crazy but now I look back, it was a great experience of life that once I had accumulated so many lamps, countlessly.

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​However, years have gone by and with a lot of changes, it is now a history... It feels sometimes almost like a past life.

And now instead of buying and collecting lamps like I used to do, I make one from scratch and turn myself into a lamp designer and maker! I make them with a passion and with the material I adore most, paper...

The design bit went pretty well. I love origami :) I did some experiment and finally came up with quite a few satisfying designs that I could use for my lamp collection. However finding the right paper for making lamp wasn't an easy job. You have to think harder when the paper nature will become part of the lamp. And despite its beauty, it won't be just a decoration but something that will be used daily (and safely!) in the household. So it has to be beautiful and durable and safe.

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After having tried and failed many times with different sorts of paper, eventually I found my perfect one. It's this lovely Japanese Unryu paper. Well, not just a typical Unryu but one with plastic reinforced so it is much stronger than the normal Unryu.

It has both strength and beauty. While it is tough and tear-resistant, it still retains its very own Unryu nature, which is its beautiful texture -- the appearance of the shimmering threads that glide over its body like the silver linings that appear underneath the clouds. It is just a perfect paper for my lamp.

I even believe that if I were to become a paper instead of human being, I could definitely see myself being this Unryu that I use for my lamps. It somehow resonates a lot of things of whom I am as human being.

Extra note: Unryu is a kind of mulbery paper made from a mulbery tree. In Japanese, Unryu means 'cloud dragon paper'. I find that a perfect translation because literally it does look like a paper with a cloud dragon or a dragon cloud!
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And why origami lamps and not other lamps?

Well, it happened that my very first client whom I had been assigned to design and craft the lamp for has a very lovely home decorated in a Japanese style. My boyfriend also worked for her as an architect. He designed this space for her. So I and him came up with the origami lamp which fits beautifully with the decor.

​And since it became a success with our first client, I fell in love with the lamp and decided to continue with it. I have so far developed a few new ideas and designs similarily to the original one and I truly enjoy it. 

I wanted to thank my boyfriend a million times for his help with the technical part, the electric light fitting which I have no knowledge of and also for a lot of comments and advices throughout the whole lamp making process. Lots of sweats and tears, lol... but it's all worth it, absolutely.


At the moment, CeruStudio has three designs for the lamp collection : Sunburst, Snowdrop, and Stardust. Please check our Products page for more information and details.

​Thank you for dropping by :)


​The Lamp Story...by Jintana Wesseling

It began...
When the two strangers met,
Such rare moment never to forget,
As if the sun and the moon converging,
A dark cloud slowly uplifting,
A cold wind joining a sunshine,
The last trace of dusk,
Merging with the first ray of sky,

It's the feeling of the known,
A distant life of our own,
And mystery finally revealed,
A lost man once again found his road,
Heart beating like a break between notes, 

No more misery, nor confuse,
A poet finally found his muse,
Inspirations bursting and exploding,
Like a million of dandelions roaming,
So free and so wild in the sky, 
Liberated, floating, gliding high...
The true moment of joy and smile, 
Suddenly all became clear,

It's a journey of two souls,
Born from the same mould,
Separate and then rejointed,
He built the dark room and wait,
For her to light it up with faith,
The universe once again radiated,
When the two hearts finally reinstated..

Like the light that casted out the dark,
The love that touched its heart,
He built the world,
and she lit it up,
It's more than just a story of a lamp...