HELIOS LAMP WORKS

EST. 2019 · LONG BEACH, CA

HL·1 — ARTICULATED TASK LAMP

Helios

An articulated task lamp, machined in Long Beach. The only product we make. Three enamels, three shades, and one long argument about how a desk should be lit.

SEC.01

We make one lamp.

Helios Lamp Works was started in 2019 by Mara Voss, who machined satellite brackets for eleven years, and Daniel Okafor, who wired stage lighting for touring ballet. The company exists because the lamp Mara wanted did not: heavy enough to stay put, articulated enough to follow work across a bench, and honest enough to repair with a screwdriver.

So there is one lamp, the HL·1, and eleven revisions behind it. The base gained 400 grams in 2021 after REV F wobbled on a drafting table in Oakland. The shoulder rose 14 millimetres in 2023 so elbows could pass under it. The rim ring has been roll-formed since REV J, because a spun edge dented once, in shipping, and once was enough.

We do not launch new lamps. We revise the old one. Your serial number tells you exactly which decisions you own.

SEC.02

Drawn, not photographed.

There are no photographs on this page. The lamp above is computed from primitive solids: discs, tubes, capsules, a torus, and one lathe curve for the shade, lit by a three-light studio that is also arithmetic.

This elevation is generated live from the same dimensions. Pose the lamp, change its shade, switch it off: the drawing follows, including the cut-off cone of its light. If render and drawing ever disagree, one of them is lying. It will not be the drawing.

FIG. 1 — ELEVATION, MM · SHOULDER 27.0° · ELBOW 97.0°

SEC.03

Thirty-one parts. Four suppliers.

Nothing exotic. 1018 steel where mass matters, 6063 aluminium where it doesn't, C360 brass wherever your hands go, and vitreous enamel fired at 820 °C, because paint is a promise and enamel is a fact.

The brass ships unlacquered. It will darken where you grip it, and in a year the lamp will be more yours than ours.

  • ORDWAY METALVernon, CAsteel & aluminium
  • HOLLIS & SONSProvidence, RIbrass bar
  • ARCADIA SPINNINGPomona, CAshade spinning
  • BRISTOL CORDAGEFall River, MAcotton cable
PARTMATERIAL · PROCESSQTY
01Base plate1018 steel · blanchard-ground1
02Base collarC360 brass · turned1
03Column6063 aluminium · powder-coat1
04Arm tube6063 aluminium · powder-coat2
05KnuckleC360 brass · turned, knurled3
06Shade3003 aluminium · spun, enamelled1
07Rim ringC360 brass · roll-formed1
08Apex galleryC360 brass · turned1
09Socket, E14brass shell · ceramic core1
10Lamp, LEDE14 · 7 W · 806 lm · 2700 K1
11Switch knobC360 brass · turned1
12Cablecotton-braided · 1.8 m1
13Base feltwool · die-cut1
14FastenersM4 stainless · assorted14
15Strain reliefC360 brass · turned1
TOTAL31
SEC.04

The numbers, as measured.

Mass and photometry below are computed from the configuration you chose above, and they update when you change it. Photometry uses a two-term model: the direct cone through the aperture, plus one diffuse bounce off the enamel interior, rounded down. No integrating sphere was harmed.

Every figure here is derived from the same constants that build the render and the drawing. There is no second set of books.

HEIGHT, POSABLE
REACH, POSABLE
BASE
SHADE ⌀ (DOME / CONE / BELL)
MASS, AS CONFIGURED
SOURCE
E14 LED · 7 W · 806 lm · 2700 K · CRI 95
SPRINGS
none — friction knuckles, hand-set
CABLE
cotton-braided · 1.8 m · inline switch
FINISH
vitreous enamel · unlacquered brass
WARRANTY
25 years · transferable · we fix what we made
SEC.05

Three hundred at a time.

The HL·1 is built in quarterly runs of 300, which is what Arcadia can spin for us in a week without resenting us. Reserve below; nothing is charged until your lamp is on the bench and its knuckles are hand-set.

If a revision lands between your reservation and your run, you get the revision. That is the whole loyalty program.

— Mara Voss & Daniel Okafor, founders