As interior designers and homeowners become more and more innovative with the way in which they create lighting schemes for properties, there is a growing trend to incorporate twigs and sticks into arrangements.
The most common pieces of nature to be weaved in and around lights include twigs from hickory, maple and beech trees. The creative phenomenon is popular because of how adaptable the style is. 'Brancheliers' can be made to look rustic and give ski-lodge-like ambiance. However, they can also be designed to look slightly more gothic, or perhaps even delicate and ornate, if thinner kindling is used in the design.
Merit Wish from Wish Designs, who has made twig chandeliers since the 1970s, told the Wall Street Journal: "It's not hard to come up with a twig light fixture." She said the challenge is in working with electricity and a material such as wood, which can burn easily.
However, new lighting technology has made this easier as LED lights, for example, do not emit heat energy in the same way that more traditional filament bulbs do. This makes the task less problematic when creating fittings that incorporate wood and combustible materials so closely in the design.
Capitalising on this characteristic using twigs is most commonly seen in ceiling light fittings, but this property of not emitting excess heat can be extremely useful in other applications when it comes to lighting the home. For example, lights can be embedded in joinery and on the underside of cabinets and furnishing, without the danger that they will stain or burn surfaces.
People may have outdoor lighting incorporated into creepers and vines up the side of their homes or around their porches, as this can look beautiful. So why not consider introducing some inventive woodwork inside your home too, making your central ceiling light a piece of aesthetic beauty as well as a practical amenity?
