Nelson Bubble lamps – Hay

Thanks to the takeover of the Danish company Hay by the American Herman Miller, the collection of iconic Bubble lamps by George Nelson finally becomes accessible in Europe. Designed by the American designer George Nelson in 1947, produced for the first time in 1952, the Bubble lamps marked a breakthrough in the world of lighting.

Available in several sizes and shapes, these elegant orbs were inspired by George Nelson by a Swedish classic, a silk suspension stretched over a structure of thin wooden rods: Nelson wanted it for his office, but considered it too expensive. He replaced the silk with a polymer developed by the American army and the wooden sticks with a light steel.

George Nelson: “I liked being surrounded by certain objects that had become symbolic, including a spherical pendant light made in Sweden. It was made of silk and difficult to reproduce. Suddenly an image came to mind, seen in the New York Time YT a few weeks ago.

It showed Liberty ships being dry docked, covered in nets sprayed with self-leveling plastic… Whammo! I rushed to the office to make a roughly spherical frame, we called various manufacturers until we found the plastic polymer, and the next night we had an illuminated lamp that only cost $125.”

Bubble lamps are still produced in the same American factory that produced them in the 1950s.