Vintage bulbs meet local wood in handmade lamps

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      The real beauty of East Van Light’s simple but striking lamps is the way that they aim for something bigger than aesthetic perfection. To sit down with creator Dan Emery in his under-renovation East Vancouver heritage home is to ruminate on a whole host of big-picture topics. Understandably, the former Montrealer is proud of the way his creations are all about attention to detail: gorgeous walnut bases, gleaming retro-style sockets, and vintage-looking cords that throw back to the days of 1930s parlour radios.

      But Emery gets really excited when he talks about the philosophy of East Van Light. After moving to East Van from Quebec, he was struck by how much West Coasters are into locally sourced artisanal goods, a great example being the craft-beer explosion.

      “I’m really after local wood—the story of keeping things local is really important to people,” says Emery, whose day job involves approving Telus Optik funding for local filmmakers in British Columbia and Alberta. “People in this town love locally sourced materials.”

      With East Van Light, that starts with the wood that Emery sources in the Lower Mainland and then works with alongside his carpenter, Brad Seiber of East Vancouver’s ReForm + Design. Sometimes that involves heading out to a property where a homeowner has taken down a tree, and sometimes it’s picking up “shorts” from a supplier—end pieces too small for a dining room table or fireplace mantel that would otherwise end up in a landfill or fireplace.

      After being cut, routered, and wired, the lights are fitted with the deco-looking sockets and knob-style switches that hail from a simpler time.
      East Van Light

      “My carpenter put me in touch with these guys in the Fraser Valley—they have barns full of hardwood,” Emery says. “They are sort of weird recluse guys who are known as the guys to call if a developer is going to go in and do a bunch of clear-cutting for a development. Or if a family has bought a home and is going to knock it down and rebuild.

      “These guys will come and take down the tree, bring it back to their barn, and cut it into slabs that are air-dried or kiln-dried slowly over a year, two years, or three years. Some of them have had slabs drying in their barns for 10 years because they know people like us will come out and buy it.”

      For his lamps, Emery has a major thing for walnut, noting the English and black varieties that can be found on the coast are striking enough that they require no stain, only varnish to bring out their natural beauty. After being cut, routered, and wired, they’re fitted with the deco-looking sockets and knob-style switches that will look familiar to anyone who’s ever picked up the favoured guitar of giants Joe Strummer, Chrissie Hynde, and Buck Owens.

      “They’re not official Fender Telecaster knobs, but they are modelled after Fender Telecaster knobs,” Emery says, noting that all his lamps are UL–certified, that safety certification a rarity at the handcrafted level.

      Ultimately, East Van Light’s lamps act as a showcase for the kind of antique-style light bulbs that have become all the rage at retro-cool diners and bars over the past few years; if you’re going to spring for a gorgeous Edison-style or Victorian quad-loop bulb, the last thing you want to be sticking it in is a $19.99 standup lamp from Canadian Tire’s discount aisle. Instead, give them the platform they deserve with East Van Light lamps like the Block ($125 at the East Van Light's soon-to-launch online shop) or the Edison ($150).

      Designer Dan Emery has a thing for walnut, as seen in the Tesla Double, which uses a salvaged slab of the wood as its base.
      East Van Light

      Emery—who has an old-school phonograph proudly displayed in his living room—freely confesses to loving old things, this tied into his renovating houses back in Montreal. The vintage-style stitched cords (houndstooth patterns include teal-and-beige and black-and-brown) that have become big selling points for lamps are inspired by time spent in old homes back east.

      “The pattern is typical to the turn of the century—1910 to 1930s era—and the colours as well,” he says. “I chose colours like Merlot, burgundy, and teal because of my memories of peeling wall layers in old houses and coming across, at the very end, the original wallpaper or paint colours from earlier eras.”

      And why do many of us love old things? Well, consider that Vancouver is a city where the past is being mowed down at an alarming rate, heritage houses torn down to make way for profit-maximizing duplexes on the East Side and monster homes on the other side of Main.

      Looking like set pieces from Double Indemnity or Shadow of a Doubt, East Van Light’s lamps seem straight from an era when everything was simpler, which is exactly the point.

      “I think people like that they aren’t distracting,” Emery posits. “Because the lamps are simple pieces, they don’t overpower the room. And it’s a functional item. Not only does it provide ambient, warm light, it’s guaranteed to be a conversation piece. People spend a lot of time talking to me about the back story of the lamps—it’s important, I think, because they want to share it going forward.”

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