Blackbird Hand-Crafted Lamps: Voyages in Design

Written by Donna Sapolin

Mark del Signore hoists a kayak over his shoulder and trudges up the path that will lead him to the Adirondack waters where, following the rhythms of his breath and slicing oars, he will free his mind enough to gain clarity about the latest set of challenges facing him in his role as President of Blackbird—a Sheffield, Massachusetts and Petaluma, California-based producer of to-the-trade lamps and sconces. If kayaking and his other favorite pastime—cycling—provide relief from the mental assaults of leading a rapidly growing business, the sports are also fitting metaphors for the wily, high-speed navigation of obstacles required for forging new design territory.

Along with his partners, sales director Lester Blumenthal and designer Christopher Smith, del Signore is creating lamps and sconces made of materials machined in entirely new ways and vanguard, and in some cases, only partially known, lighting sources. Design and production innovations abound in Blackbird’s first product collection, the entirely handmade-in-the-USA 13-piece “Solo” group in which thin, sensuously bent stainless steel tubes attach to wood veneer shades in an all but imperceptible manner. A skillful reconciliation of warm and cool tones with an elegant minimalist footprint, the “Solo” fixtures evoke the innovations of the Bauhaus and mid-century modern movements and could bridge any number of different styles in a space.

Today, del Signore, is fixated on the nagging problem that has kept him up for the better part of two nights figuring out how large the bore should be to accommodate the wiring in one of Smith’s designs. But he’s no stranger to such problems and he comes well equipped to handle them—his interest in producing three-dimensional products started in childhood.

“As a kid, I was always building things and trying to understand how they go together,” he says. “I started out making furniture but in the ‘70s, I wanted to be a rock star and I found someone who could mentor me in crafting acoustic guitars. Then I took up bicycle racing and would tear bikes apart to see how they worked. I’d fix them, customize them and was forever drilling, filing and welding.”

After high school, del Signore turned to plumbing to cover the mounting bills of his young family and eventually, after procuring a master plumber’s license, progressed to systems design for the plumbing and heating industry. A dozen years had lapsed before he shifted directions and began working for his first interiors-based firm, Blumenthal Wallcovering and Fabric, where he met its co-owner, Lester Blumenthal. The design arena, the skills he gained as the company’s General Manager, and the solid friendship he forged with Lester would prove to be fortuitous and vital for shaping a product company he would own with others.

From Blumenthal, del Signore moved to positions within wallcovering manufacturers J.M. Lynn and Quedrelle—rounding out the qualifications that now serve him so well in grappling with the load he carries at Blackbird details that range from overseeing the books to procuring materials and resolving technical problems relating to the company’s emergent products. “Through the various positions I held over the years, I got critical on-the-job training in accounting, human resources, product procurement inventory, warehousing, and packaging,” says del Signore. “It was like being a general practitioner with a specialty in product development.”

At Blackbird, he shares some of his responsibilities with designer Christopher Smith who had gone to school with Lester and was commissioned by him to create surface design for some of the Blumenthal wallpapers. Because of del Signore’s multi-faceted background in design development, Smith and he work together to determine how to take an idea from the point of conceptualization to manufacture. “Chris is the kind of designer who really appreciates and takes into account others’ input. We’ve had to figure out, for example, how to get Blackbird’s unique shades made in cost-effective ways and sustain our mission of trying to have as little as possible going on in the designs. Each of the shades is individually and meticulously handmade in four different wood varieties: ebony, maple, fir and walnut. And the bases, often crafted from a single length of milled stainless steel, display the very finest metal joinery.”

Launched in 2004, the company intends to safeguard its small-batch, hand production methods and strictly U.S.-based manufacture. Nine different showrooms are now purveying their refined wares, which are “trending up and positively,” says del Signore. Not surprisingly, further innovation is in the works. “Chris has so many ideas,” says the Blackbird President. “He’s only limited by the size of our support staff.”

Two new collections are being readied—one that incorporates heavy base metals, LEDs and new types of compact fluorescent bulbs, and another that is rooted in fixtures made entirely of wood and hand-blown glass.

The latter collection, says del Signore, “will be shaping wood into things that it has never before been shaped into.”

The challenges and opportunities are surely many but they’re unlikely to make del Signore sweat any more than fixing the broken bike of his longtime hero, Tour de France winner Greg LeMond, which he did a couple of weeks ago. The bucolic atmosphere that pervades his work environment (“I see the Berkshires right outside my window, along with hawks, deer, and fox,” he says) in combination with a pioneering design direction and two partners who have mastered their respective disciplines will help the president of this young lighting firm clear future hurdles just as surely as his self-described ‘bike geek’ nature helped him overcome the bumpy roads of the past.

Mark’s Decorati Favorites to complement the Duo Floor Lamp
Duo Floor Lamp by Blackbird	Ethos Sofa by House of European Design	Kjaerholm Lounge Chair by Denmark50
Ox Lounge Chair by Dennis Miller Associates	Nuevo Tango Credenza by Dakota Jackson	Gio Composition 25 by Nella Vetrina

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All Blackbird product photos, in situ photos, and portraits taken by Peter R. Peirce.

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