Bover Brings Mediterranean Craft to Lighting

The term “handcrafted” gets tossed around a lot in design these days, but what does it really signify? For Catalan lighting brand Bover—celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2026—it means having expert craftspeople weave cord, thread, and fiber into some of its lamp shades and wrap others in ribbon, sew-together the 170 beechwood components of the iconic Benedetta Tagliabue-designed Dome chandelier, to a degree of precision that makes them look machine-made. Fully apparent to anyone visiting the brand’s workshop, this closely controlled “produced with care” approach ensures the resulting luminaires are durable and long-lasting.  

At Bover, human hands capture the Mediterranean’s distinct natural glow in illuminated sculptures. Established by Joana Bover near Barcelona in 1996, her namesake brand pairs local artisanal heritage with advanced LED technology. The visceral lighting fixtures infuse contemporary indoor and outdoor spaces with rhythmic structure and material weight. 

Perfecting delicate textile weaving, the ribbon-wrapping process is a signature technique that carries across many of Bover’s collections. Master craftspeople long on staff precisely weld together internal steel frames before binding bands of carefully selected material around the concentric metal rings. 

The harnessed and adapted age-old expertise becomes remarkably tangible when evaluating physical labor across production. Fabricating a single Mos 03 pendant lamp shade requires wrapping 590 meters of translucent ribbon band over six painstaking hours. Its nested circles feature layers of tautly pulled fabric that soften harsh glare into inviting ambient radiance, emanating from the apertures of the open weave. Similarly, constructing Mei 150 fixtures demands 550 linear yards and two-and-a-half-hour working cycles. Fashioning the Kando P111 outdoor lantern utilizes nautical cordage tightly woven over the course of an intensive ninety minute interval.