CRAFTSMANSHIP

LE KLINT's pleating girls, as they are called, are a very special asset. The craft of folding lampshades is preserved in Odense, Denmark - and nowhere else in the world. And the LE KLINT factory is the only place in the world to produce cross-pleated lampshades. Countless engineers have attempted to produce a machine that can fold cross pleats. To date however, the task has proven to be particularly difficult and no machine has yet improved on this craftsmanship.

 

It takes a pleating girl a year to learn the technique then two to three years to master all the models in the range. Many of the pleating girls have been working at LE KLINT many years and within the company, people joke that new employees cannot expect to be taken seriously until they have celebrated their Silver Jubilee!

 

An apprentice pleating girl is taught how to fold the perpendicular pleated folds of the classic model 1 shade and the wavy pleating of the Sinus Line in her first year. The pleats are folded along embossed patterns and lines in the plastic material. The embossing machine, developed by LE KLINT, comprises a brass roller, which embosses the patterns onto a roll of material. This means that there is a separate roller for each model.

 

When the material is embossed, it is cut into pieces, each corresponding to a specific lamp or lampshade, and pleating work can begin. After pleating, the shades are sewn together with a single seam (wherever applicable, on the inside). The shade is then turned so that the seam is invisible.

 

Down the years, the dexterity of the pleating girls has transformed the designers' drawings into real shades. The girls play an active part in converting new ideas into de facto production.