Those are lights made by two illustrious Norwegian companies that have the same owner. They are the 260-year-old Hadeland Glasswerk, and Porsgrund (Porsgrunds Porselænsfabrik) founded in 1885. You probably haven’t heard of them before (unless you are Norwegian) but they are going to crop up a lot from now on. Remember, you read about them here first!
Both collections are easy to understand.
Note that all the metal structures can be black, steel or brass.
GLASS PENDANTS
CRYSTAL SPHERES
A beautifully simple concept! There are eight patterns (one plain, one moulded, one with a soda finish, and five cut), each available in three sizes:
And in a choice of clear or ten colours:
I make that 264 options!
Here is a close-up of the soda finish:
This bubble effect is achievd by sprinkling mineral powder on the glass and then reheating it before its final blow in the mould. Being glass, each one comes out a bit differently, of course.
The cut versions are genuinely cut; they are not moulded.
This is important. It is extremely skilled work and there are not many people who can do it. They have to look through the back side of the area of glass they are cutting, and they have to look at that through the section of the glass sphere that is nearest to them:
If they cut too deep, they go through the glass. And it has to be perfect—with repeating patterns like these, any imperfection is obvious. (Note that it is easy to distinguish moulded from cut glass: the latter will have much crisper edges.)
For clusters, they have a series of standard top plates. You can create your own arrangement, or choose one designed for them by selected interior designers. Here are three from Renate Lorentzen’s Amber collection:
DROP
Drop is “inspired by movements in water”. It comes in two sizes, two patterns and two colours.
ARCHIVE LIGHTS
The Archive Lights are the Real Deal—genuine mid-century Scandi! From the 1930s to the 1960s, Hadeland Glassverk was one of Norway’s largest suppliers of lighting. The designs were by their in-house team, Jonas Hidle and Arnulf Bjørshol. Hidle was head of the drawing office at Christiania Glasmagasin and Bjørshol was the designer for Christiania Glasmagasin’s Høvik Lighting- department.
This time, there are eight shapes…
…some (but not all) in one size. 4014 can be Ø50cm. That’s a big blow! It makes quite an impact, as you can see from its picture above.
4006 dates from 1932 and is their oldest design. It looks like a glass version of Poul Henningsen’s PH series (introduced in 1926), which seems to makes no sense because the PH vanes are mathematically designed to reflect light in specific ways. So 4006 is picking up on what had already by then become an iconic Scandinavian lighting shape.
There are two opaque whites and three translucent colours.:
PORCELAIN PENDANTS
The lights from Porsgrunds Porselænsfabrik look great singly or in combinations. Modernized classics and a new series designed by their current design team are manufactured at their factory in Porsgrunn, Norway.
RILLE
Four shapes/sizes:
SPIRE
BLAD
Cool and calm in the day. A warm glow in the night. So wonderfully Scandi!
Finally, back to Hadeland Glasswerk for a wild card:
CRYSTAL CONE
This Crystal Cone pendant light, designed by Head of Design Maud Gjeruldsen Bugge, consists of 22 crystal cones. The structure is available with a rust finish (as shown), brushed steel, brass or lacquered. It is L120cm. However, custom lengths are also available.
Click here for the catalogue. Do get in touch if you think any of these lights might be suitable for a project.
