About Me
About me
At home in France
I moved to France from the UK several years ago. After helping my Dad renovate his first French property, we then started work on an old barn next door, converting it into our new home. However, after months of searching, the only things I still hadn’t found were good quality, unusual and inexpensive light fittings. So, I decided to make my own – from sourcing the materials to creating my designs and fitting the lights myself. I loved every minute of it.
It was fun searching the local vide-greniers and brocantes (similar to car boot sales in the UK) for old, unusual pieces and upcycling them into something new-looking and practical. After I’d made a few lights I was so happy with the results that I shared some photos on social media. The response was incredible and totally unexpected. Everyone was saying how beautiful and unusual my designs were, that they were like works of art and were they for sale.
Setting up my business
So, in 2014 I set up my business, Unique Lighting Company, along with an Etsy shop. My many years of working with electrics, electronics, and the wholesale lighting business served me in good stead. I had a rough idea of what I wanted to do, but everything else was in my head or on scraps of paper.
I began making lights from old, antique and vintage lights, lanterns and such like. But I have now progressed into making things from scratch, using new and reclaimed wood and a wide variety of other materials, such as Perspex, glass, and various metals. I also repurpose other everyday objects too – wooden crates, metal reflectors, pieces of pipe. In fact, almost anything that I can lay my hands on ends up in my workshop, awaiting a transformation brainwave and a gap in creating customer orders!
Exciting first sale
When I remember the first sale I made, I was so excited reading the email. But I quickly realised my next issue was going to be packing and posting it. The order came from the USA and a huge percentage of my products still end up there. Americans really seem to like the more unusual and unique items I make. Since then my products have been posted to just about every corner of the globe – including Australia, Dubai, Hawaii. And even to a tree house in Jamaica! (a custom pendant light made from wooden logs).
I’ve provided vintage lanterns for a Los Angeles-based ghost tours company. And even the famous Pinewood film studios in the UK have one of my bespoke lamps.
My business is ‘unique’
Ultimately, and as far as my designs are concerned, no item is out of scope. I have created unique lighting from other unusual items such as milk churns, rusty pots, and an old copper kettle.
So now I do a bit of everything. From using modern materials to create new, minimalistic lighting to restoring a one-hundred-year-old oil lantern. I am also open to collaborations and commissions. And I have manufactured several bespoke items for customers from their own pieces, ideas or designs.
Love of dogs, movies & immersive technology
In the meantime, I have bought my own little house to renovate, and I live there with my two Siberian Huskies – Jensen and Pearl (a rescued dog). They keep me company at home and in the workshop, and are a great stress release, especially on our daily rambles through woods, fields or on the beach.
I’m also a BIG movie fan and love having all my lights at home change colour according to what I’m watching on the TV. I love this immersive technology and am really excited about incorporating it into my own hand-crafted lights.
Every day I am finding, designing and creating something new and exciting. But now I do it because I want to, not because I have to. And yes. I still love every minute of it.
I just hope people enjoy using my products as much as I enjoy creating them.
Owen Duggan
LuxSabre – the art of illumination
If you want to know more about me and what I get up to then check out my YouTube channel.
