She — Cuban expatriate Carmen Grier — is the creator. But she likes the term “créateur.” In that mode, her husband, psychiatrist and businessman Ken Grier, is the financier. Together, they are Atelier 1817, and they make single-edition lamps out of antique and vintage collectibles, including metal thermos bottles and the statues of macabre angels.
Their lamps are quite literally many things, and they reflect the quirkiness of the pair who shapes them. There’s a touch of surrealism here, a confidently wired drollery: these lamps could illuminate any room from a lakeside chalet to a luxury brownstone.
One piece features an old mill spool mounted on a 1940s steel base, further attached to a Kerosene lamp and finished with a vintage light socket and Edison filament bulb. Another lamp base is an antique G.W. Todd & Co. Protectograph (check-stamping machine) — the piece is pristine, complete with an original vial of ink and application brush inside the case. A galvanized-steel Jiffy hand-cracked ice-cream churn from the ’50s becomes a lamp with a tubular bulb.
The Griers’ work is not so much a trendy salvage project — making functional pieces out of discarded material — as it is about reinterpreting existing showpieces. “The items are brought to life under another dimension … viewed in an unconventional format,” explains Ken.
“I search flea markets, estate sales, demolition sites, thrift shops, antique stores, markets, and auctions for items,” says Carmen, who has worked as an interior and fashion designer. The best future lamp bases aren’t always on display, though. Some, she says, “are plain old forgotten items that are just waiting for the chance for a renewed life.”
She describes her process: “I develop a concept of what I want the lamp to look like, keeping in mind its form and function, and then electrify the piece with antique sockets and new [vintage-look] cording.” What she calls “the appropriate Edison bulb” lends authenticity to the final product. (Actually, Carmen employs a professional electrician to do the trickiest work, because oddly beautiful means nothing if it’s not functionally safe.)
Despite its antique-sounding name, Atelier 1817 is only about a year old, and the date is not remote but affectionate, representing Ken and Carmen’s birthdays, respectively December 18 and 17. “We developed the company as an outlet for Carmen’s creativity and [as] an arena for travel,” Ken says.
The true genesis was more personal, though. “She was searching for a special piece for our home,” recalls Ken, “but felt that new lamps don’t have the same unique characteristics and acquired patina from use and age that antique and vintage pieces do.”
The créateur herself even gets philosophical. “We live in a disposable society where longevity is not important,” offers Carmen. “But these lamps carry a sense of history.”
Atelier 1817 lamps are sold in Hendersonville at A Walk in the Woods (on Facebook: A Walk in the Woods NC) and in Asheville at The Eco-Depot Marketplace (ecodepotmarketplace.com). For more information, contact Ken and Carmen Grier at 305-987-0161 or by e-mail: fashionin@me.com.