Svenska Armaturer
Grandpa Family is our way to highlight creative, interesting and ambitious people in our vicinity. This time around we met up with lamp magnate Erik Heggestad.
There are worse things in life than industrial armatures, especially if you ask Erik Heggestad, founder of Svenska Armaturer. A few years ago, Erik spent his time scavenging the Swedish countryside looking for industrial armatures with glass or enamel shades. Sometimes he bought off bulk parties from industrial structures waiting to be torn down, sometimes he made smaller findings here and there.
Tell us something about the store and workshop of yours
A couple of years ago I took over this space which used to be an old tobacco shop. My brother and I spent eight months tearing out the old interior from the eighties to build up a ”new” interior true to the styles of 1920ies - which is more in line with the character of the house, which was built in 1929.
Do you only sell vintage items, or are there also new lamps?
Out of the glass, about 50% is what we call ”new old stock”, meaning unused domes that’s been laying around at abandoned glasswork factories. I’ve also found cast-iron molds and original blueprints, which I use to make new glass domes. I glass-blow these into original shapes from mid-1900. The suspensions are often made out of pieces from Milano. So a lamp bought from my shop is sure to be 100% not made in China.
Out of all the lamps here, do you have a favorite one?
For sure. There’s an Italian Sputnik lamp with 16 arms, with cobalt blue domes from Hans-Agne Jakobsson. This particular blue hue together with the brass makes my heart tick.
Is there a dream lamp that you’d want to get your hands on?
There’s so many, and for the obvious reason, most of them are some sort of industry armature. But THE ONE would be an Alberello with colored glass shades from Stilnovo (google it!).
[b]Is there any particular project you’re extra proud over?
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It would be when my brother and I basically vacuumed all of Sweden in the hunt for industrial armatures. We got to see the industrial history of Sweden up close, and it was just a beautiful experience - even though the pragmatics of it often meant dismantling lamps in damp and dark spaces ridden with mold.
One last question: do you have any ideas for those out there looking to up their light game at home?
Ah, a classic fall time question. I prefer using a lot of dim light sources rather than a few bright ones. It’s cozier and makes the room look more interesting. More than that I’m longing for the window light trend to die off, once and for all.