Anna Claudia Strolz

Shining a light on a disappearing skill

• Anna makes lampshades by hand
• She has a dark room for testing the lamps
• Some lampshades require 3-4,000 stitches

Anna's first lampshade took her two months to complete, on her kitchen table. Inspired by the pleated traditional costumes of the Bregenzerwald, it caught the eye of a hotel owner from the region. Realising the demand for this disappearing skill, she started to sell lamps from the boot of her car, then set up her workshop and retail space in 2014. Here she welcomes clients as sensitive and passionate about the spatial and emotional significance of light as she is. Beyond the quality of light, each shade has a story. She also revives the appreciation and savoir-faire of lampshade making through collaborations with artists and designers

Interview

©Strolz Leuchten

©Emanuel Sutterluety

Who still makes lampshades?

Due to mass production, it has become impossible to take classes on the subject in Austria. Knowledge is mainly harboured by a few elderly ladies who still sew traditional soft lampshades and linings by hand.

What motivates your work?

My customers – they are exceptional. Nowadays, most people buy lamps for their design, not the quality of the light. Yet the inner workings of each lamp can completely alter a room. You also have to consider the colour of the room’s ceiling, or whether it is facing east or west.

Which materials are particularly rare?

I have to use all my charm to beg for scraps of vellum, which nowadays is nearly exclusively used for drums and bookbinding. A large lampshade might require the skin of an entire calf. The way it diffuses light is incomparable.

You mainly source locally?

I always seek out local artisans, like a crêpe-linen weaver using traditional looms, or a Lodenmill in Steiermark. I am an active member of the Werkraum Bregenzerwald, and deeply convinced we can only be strong together.

Anna Claudia Strolz is a master artisan: she began her career in 2012 and she started teaching in 2014

Works

©Marco Bertolini

©Marco Bertolini

©Robert Fessler

Where

Experiences

Lamp making workshop tour in Bregenz

1 Hour

Free