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Silva Giant Lamp by Cerno

The Silva is a series of lamps by Cerno available in a table, floor and “giant” option. The Silva Giant is an oversized floor lamp with a huge shade for people in need of something with a little more presence in the room. They offered to share the Deconstruction of the Silva Giant with us – take a look at the process of creating this giant sculpture.

The Silva Giant is a scaled up version of our Silva table and Silva floor lamps. With an overall height exceeding 7’0”, it makes a strong presence in any space.

Here our CNC router cuts the wood body out in several passes. We use sophisticated software to transform our CAD drawings and models into tool paths that the Computer Numeric Controlled router head then follows. The final perimeter pass leaves a thin layer of wood on the bottom of the board to hold the part in place while it is routed.

Each Silva giant body is routed from a single 3/4 inch thick American Walnut board. This not only achieves great yield, but by cutting one Silva Giant from one board also ensures consistent grain and color. The CNC router cuts the shape of the part and also creates cavities for a weight and the electronics.

The thin layer of wood left along the bottom after the final perimeter router pass keeps the part secure in the board. Here, Dan holds the routed American Walnut board showing the two halves of the Silva Giant body.

After the CNC routing is finished the thin layer of wood or “skin” along the bottom of the board that keeps it secure during the final routing operations is cut with a utility knife freeing the two parts from the American Walnut board.

After the CNC routing the wood parts are closely inspected for checking and other defects.

Next glue is applied to both halves, a steel weight is inserted and the body is clamped. On many days here in sunny SoCal we can unclamp after only a 1/2 hour.

In addition to American Walnut the Silva Giant is also composed of aluminum tube. All of our tube parts are cut, bent, and drilled to specification. Here we are using our bench mounted tube bender for the neck tube.

Here, Dan is operating the CNC mill to machine several parts for the Silva Giant including the shade spine with the dimmer housing. Some Silva giant parts are turned on the lathe (on the right).

At Cerno we use the highest quality LEDs and electronics to ensure proper performance for the life of the fixture. Here Heather is soldering on positive and negative wire leads directly to the multi chip LED array. We produce a completely lead free, RoHS compliant product, as part of our commitment to the environment.

Here Heather prepares the head assembly with all the Silva Giant parts placed on the table. A lot of thought and care is taken to conceal and route the wire to the light head. A dimmer knob is located in the bottom of the shade spine.

Here, Heather is chasing the wire through the wood body. Next, she prepares to insert the neck tube with shade spine and light head assembly into the wood body.

Heather mechanically fastens the metal tubes to the wood body. Next, she makes electrical connections between the wire running up one of the tube legs with the wire chased through the wood body. A small metal cover plate conceals this electronics cavity in the wood body.

Heather is securing the heat sink/LED to the light head which is positioned at the top of the shade. The light diffusing polymer used in the light head evenly distributes the light with minimal losses.

Here Matt tests the fit of the metal tube legs against the wood body and places the lamp in its normal standing position for the first time. Head on, and without the shade installed the Silva Giant has a very slender look.

Linen fabric is adhered to a thin plastic sheet that is bent around the light source and fastened along a spine. This shade detail, signature to Cerno fixtures, makes for an extremely clean lamp shade profile.

The rigidity of the shade material makes for a very round and taught shaped shade. Clearly not a one man operation – the lamp ships with the shade installed on the head assembly.

The Silva Giant stands a tall 7’0”. Heather gives scale to the light fixture set against the Laguna Canyon.

Our friend Lucas is pictured bathing in the sweet light from the Silva Giant at a recent Cerno event.

Jaime Derringer, Founder + Executive Editor of Design Milk, is a Jersey girl living in SoCal. She dreams about funky, artistic jewelry + having enough free time to enjoy some of her favorite things—running, reading, making music, and drawing.