Jesse Butterfield pairs sewn paper with hammered steel

Designer Jesse Butterfield showed sewn paper lighting and hand-hammered steel stools side by side in the exhibition A Veiled Boundary, staged in the Brompton Design District during London Design Festival 2026. Curated by Alex Tieghi-Walker, the show ran from 12 to 20 September.

The Sew Paper Lighting series continues a centuries-old tradition of making lampshades from paper, a material prized for its physical lightness and translucency. To realise the pieces, Butterfield teamed up with The Paper Foundation, a Lake District paper mill founded by sixth-generation papermaker Mark Cropper.

"We got to visit The Paper Foundation and see their process, then select six or seven different papers," said Butterfield. "We went through their archive and chose what we thought would have nice drapage and lighting effects, as well as selecting different papers for different applications."

Slim stainless steel frames dictate each lamp's general form and purpose, spanning pendants, wall lights, floor lamps and table lamps. Around them, the lanterns are built from folded, draped and otherwise physically manipulated handmade paper, hand-stitched into amorphous shapes.

In dialogue with the lamps, Butterfield's Stool Des Pois series explores sheet metal's capacity to behave like paper. A paper model served as the starting point for the stool, which was then scaled up and recreated in steel, heated and hammered by hand until it achieved a thinness and lightness akin to paper.

All the stools share the same initial model and dimensions, but natural variations in the handmade process ensure that no two are entirely alike. Further distinction comes from polka dot patterning, the result of intentional blackening of the metal that introduces visual interest while recording the story of their manufacture.

"This is the first time where I'm leaving the dots on the surface," said Butterfield. "They come from the making process – in the past I've sanded them away, but I wanted to bring them in now as they fit with the theme of things being perfectly imperfect," he added, nodding to the leitmotif of this year's Brompton Design District programme.

Elsewhere in the district, RCA students exhibited a series of stools created with a single tool, and Isamaya French launched her second-ever Studio Iron show. The photography for A Veiled Boundary is by Andy Stagg.

The exhibition positions Butterfield's two material investigations — paper made to glow and steel made to float — as complementary halves of a single enquiry into how far each material can borrow the other's properties.