To mark its century anniversary, Boyd Lighting is celebrating the fragile beauty of porcelain with a new lighting collection named Spire, a collaboration with Canadian industrial designer Jake Oliveira and Powell and Bonnell. The Spire series features sconces and pendants made of unglazed porcelain bisque, elegantly stretched and draped over exquisitely milled brass rods.

For Boyd Lighting, a family-run, fourth-generation lighting company based in Colorado Springs, the collaboration with Oliveira provided an opportunity to push boundaries. “We were looking to create something classic, that would bring us back to our roots, but also forward-thinking,” says Schuyler Sweet, fourth generation leader of Boyd. “Something clean and modern to embody everything we love about art, architecture and fashion, but with an innovative twist and a sense of levity.”

Oliveira presented Sweet and his team with a handful of ideas. The one that intrigued Sweet most was a metaphor of an architectural spire. Oliveira had suggested the iconic motif of the spire because of its historical significance — a nod to the heritage of Boyd’s brand. “In older European towns, the highest point is the church spire,” says Oliveira. “It’s a timeless shape that has always represented inspiration and beauty.” A perfect analogy to Boyd as the company enters into its 101st year serving the design and architectural trades.

The Spire also evokes a familiar form seen in nature. “An architectural spire looks just like a leaf,” Oliveira explains. “Both have stems that taper upwards to form a single point.”

Starting with a wall sconce, Oliveira began to work on the curves and proportions of the spire, noting that classical architecture had strict conventions on how these structures were designed. His initial idea was to use cast resin and gold leaf for the shade, materials which Boyd Lighting had worked with before. But Schuyler was looking for something different, a more time honored material. “I wanted to push materiality for our 100th year, and we found a wonderful vendor that could create the slipped cast, bisque porcelain shade.” Schuyler recalls.

In the Spire collection, Boyd Lighting and Oliveira first experimented with a thin slip-cast porcelain. However, the quality of light emitted through the material proved to be too harsh, producing hot spots. The solution was a thicker, heavier porcelain made by expert artisans in Europe, which allowed for a more ambient, balanced glow to reflect inside the sculptural shade. Additionally, a unique recessed feature called tuck fastening was perfected to create a seamless look, void of any visible screws.. The result is an impeccably made unglazed porcelain shade that appears to be draped over a single spike of perfectly milled brass.

“One of the luxuries of working with Boyd Lighting is that they source the very best craftspeople from around the world to provide different options and samples,” says Oliveira. “The porcelain we selected is natural and porous. It captures light and cradles it beautifully, like a vessel. This makes for a dynamic, dramatic effect.”