The Journal of Australian Ceramics Vol 49 No 3 November 2010

Focus : Architectural Ceramics
Mud + Koskela = Licht
Frances Morgan discusses a switched-on collaboration
A collaboration between furniture design company Koskela® and ceramic homeware design outfit
Mud" Australia, has led to the production of two light fittings that have been installed in corporate fit
outs and are selling in the United States and Europe.
The idea for the collaboration came about when Sasha Titchkosky and Russel Koskela, of Koskela,
designed a light shade to soften the harsh glow emitted from energy-saving globes. They approached
Shelley Simpson and James Kirkton from Mud to produce the design, which is called Licht. "We took
the concept to them because we liked the way they deal with ceramics, the vibrancy of their colour and
the finishes they do," says Titchkosky.
For Simpson, who started Mud in 1994, it was an opportunity to venture in a direction she had
always wanted to go. "Lighting for me is something that I've been interested in but never had the time
to properly resolve." Koskela has been producing lighting for over eight years (most recently developing
light fittings with weavers from Elcho Island in Arnhem Land) so had worked out many of the intricacies
around quality componentry and cabling. "Now that we have the joint skills of this partnership j'm
looking forward to bringing other designs to life," says Simpson.
Mud also had a dome shape that they wanted to produce. The dome design had actually started
its life as a rubbish bin when, some years ago, Mud collaborated with a company in the United States
called Waterworks, to produce a bathroom rang e. " I think people felt uncomfortable about placing
porcelain on the floor," says Simpson. However, she liked the design and held onto the idea. When the
collaboration with Koskela came about she revisited the bin design and with some minor adjustments,
flipped it over to form the design for a light shade.
"Licht, like most of Koskela 's wares, has a Scandinavian inspired aesthetic," says Titchkosky. "The
flared outer rim was especially created to allow people to see up into the light."
Both Licht and the dome fitting are made of Limoge porcelain, which Mud uses for all their wares.
Colour is introduced by tinting the porcelain slip slate, canary yellow or white. They are also produced
in spliced combinations of colour - for instance slate on the outside surface and yellow on the inside -
created by repouring the contrasting colour of slip into the mould.
Vitrified porcela in on the outer surface feels like rough parchment, while the inside is glazed so it
reflects the light The plain white light when lit appears translucent and emits a pale orange hue from
the globe.
Collaborating with Koskela felt right to Simpson. Koskela is a similar-sized company also being run
by a husband-and-wife team, and while Mud has made attempts in the past to collaborate with large
companies with little result, working with a similar-sized company with a similar ethos felt more even .
38 THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS NOVEMBER 2010