A lamp spends most of its life switched off. That is the argument for choosing one on its material as much as on its light — for twelve hours a day it is an object on a table, and only for the other twelve is it a light source.
But material decides the light too, and it does so in ways that are easy to underestimate from a photograph. Here is what each of ours actually does.
Alabaster
Alabaster is translucent stone. Light does not pass through it so much as sink into it and come back out softened, carrying the stone's own veining with it. The effect is warm and slightly uneven, and no two shades are identical because no two pieces of stone are.
Switched off, it reads as pale marble. Switched on, the veining appears — which is why an alabaster sconce looks like a different object at night than it did at noon.
It is soft stone. It chips if you knock it against a hard edge during installation, so unpack it on a towel rather than a worktop.
Travertine
Travertine is denser than alabaster and far less translucent. It forms over thousands of years as mineral-rich water deposits layer on layer, which leaves the small open pores that give it its texture. Light mostly reflects off it rather than passing through, so a travertine fixture reads as a solid mass with light around it rather than a glowing shade.
That makes it a good choice where you want the fixture to hold its own as an object during the day. It is heavier than it looks — check the fixing requirements before you commit to a plasterboard wall.
Hand-blown glass
The variable here is not the glass but the finish. Clear glass gives you a visible filament and a sharp, sparkling light with real shadows — beautiful over a table, punishing in a room where you want to relax. Frosted or hand-frosted glass diffuses the source: softer, no visible filament, no hard shadow edges.
Hand-frosting leaves an irregular surface, and that irregularity is the point. It scatters light unevenly in a way machine-frosted glass does not, which is what people are describing when they say a fixture feels warm rather than bright.
Oak and walnut
Wood does nothing to the light — it is opaque. What it does is set the temperature of the object. Oak reads pale and calm; walnut reads darker and heavier. Both warm a room that has a lot of metal or stone in it.
Wood also moves. In a very dry room, or directly above a radiator, solid wood can shift slightly over years. It is not a defect and it does not affect the fixture, but it is the reason we do not recommend wood directly over a heat source.
Linen and rice paper
The most diffusing materials we use. Linen gives a warm, even wash with a visible weave when lit. Rice paper — washi, in the Japanese fixtures — is lighter still and produces the softest light of anything here, closer to a lit window than to a lamp.
Both are shades rather than structures. They do not like damp rooms, and they collect dust, which a dry brush removes in seconds.
Brass and metal
Metal is the frame, not the light. What matters is the finish: brushed brass warms the light reflected off it, chrome and nickel cool it, and matt black absorbs it and disappears. If a room already has warm wood and brass hardware, a brass fixture disappears into it — which may be exactly what you want, or exactly what you do not.
A note on bulbs
You can undo any of this with the wrong bulb. A cool white bulb in an alabaster shade cancels out the warmth you paid for. For every material above, a warm bulb in the 2700K range is the safe choice; 3000K if you want it slightly crisper. The bulb specification for each fixture is listed on its product page.
Unsure which material suits your room? Send us a photo — support@haviera.com.