The hottest category in online sales, at least within our niche, is lighting. It seems designers and homeowners alike desire to change, add-to or improve their interior lighting, more than ever before (perhaps there is direct correlation between the quarantine indoors we all have had and our innate desire to be outdoors and not confined or in the dark as much).
We have found, what they really want is the coolest lighting on the market. Something that is awe-inspiring. Something to connect to, with a story or purpose behind it. Today, (for us & our clientele) that is the Vintage Industrial Airplane Trusses chandelier. We (Tim Byrne) first designed this light back in 2012, and shortly thereafter it was fabricated and placed in the showroom. Within days it was sold. It was custom packed, delivered & installed in a beautiful modern metropolitan / country farmhouse, for a client in LA (right outside of Hollywood, CA). The client’s house was then celebrated in Elle Décor Magazine (May 2017 “High Style”). With this press coverage as well as dozens of others… the trusses-chandelier has become a very, popular item. It’s still the most coveted lighting product we offer.
Which we are very proud of. It is a remarkable design and it’s even more breathtaking, when installed and lit-up. However, the irony is… it’s the hardest product in the world to make, (well, it’s the hardest product for us to make and offer). It honestly requires the most time intensive labor ever. This one light, is completely built by hand, one piece at a time, literally thousand of wooden pieces, all cut, softened, soaked, shaped, sanded, and then carefully assembled by a master-craftsman. From start to finish this beautiful light takes one man, two months to complete. Working everyday, five days a week. When done it is a true work-of-art.
Folks are always curious to learn how we do what we do… How we create these Masterpieces. Some, call it magic. Some, think it borders on madness (at times). Well for us, we know that its a “labor of love” (a genuine passion). And no product bears witness to that passion more than this stunning trusses-chandelier, in large part that is due to the painstaking process required in order to bring such a piece to market. This is really no surprise, in our modern society & especially our western culture, we place the greatest value on the hardest to get things (ie. diamonds, pearls, 24K gold, huge homes, fancy cars, Masters degrees, PHD’s, family, children, …love).
So, we figured why not show folks how we do what we do, using one of our very-best products. So today, we are showing a few of the steps in our unique process. Consider this, our first Behind the scenes look at what happens in the workshop at Get Back.
It all begins with the prep and then the fabrication, building the frame-work and then hanging it, (a bit lower than it’s normal height, which allows us to create the primary structure, a circular wooden housing, referred to as the “center cluster”). This structure protects the important electrical components, for all of the individual lights and it also helps to create the important structural integrity, or strength, it also houses all of the key parts – including channels, hinges, sockets, and the chain that allows the light to suspend from the ceiling. When suspended, this creates the actual shop-space that our master craftsman needs, in order to work-under.
After building the frame & center cluster, we then demonstrate the extensive assembly process, which is all done by hand, and one part at a time. We provide only a glimpse at the level of organization that is required when fabricating and organizing hundreds of hand-made replica-parts, all wooden pieces of a vintage airplane truss, (18 trusses in total, sometimes 10, 12, or more, it all depends on the overall size of the chandelier on-order). These trusses make-up the unique structural arms for the chandelier (these are all fabricated using thousands of other supporting pieces and components).
All working together, they allow the structure to extend-out to an impressive (and almost unbelievable) length, all due to the innovative design. Which is truly amazing to think about. This awe-inspiring design was first engineered in the aerospace industry, all the way back to the mid-late 19th century (when the Wright Brothers were pushing the boundaries of exploration, quite literally jumpstarting the world of aviation).
So we hope you find it just as special as we do, being able to see a little bit, a peek at how we create the beautiful things we do. It is a labor of love. One that helps others to make the important connections, connections between people and the products they use, to live, to work, to love, to honor our shared past, our history together.
For those of you who would like a closer-look into the inner-workings of our company, perhaps a tour of your own or a face-face with some of our master craftsmen, please contact us. We truly enjoy sharing our knowledge, our passion and our experience with anyone who has an appreciation for great design, our crafts, our history or our industry in general. We’ll do our best to help you Get Back to doing the things you love too!
