24 Karat Blau by designer Axel Schmid for Ingo Maurer is part and namesake of the golden 24 Karat Blau luminaire family. Metal, four plates with gold leaf cast into acrylic glass: the luminaire's trims each have four holes with which they can be hung from the red rod cross at different angles, in portrait or landscape format. The 24 carat blue trims are individually handcrafted. Gold leaf is real gold. It is beaten out very thinly with a hammer by gold beaters. The gold leaf is beaten 1/10,000 mm thin - the equivalent of 1,000 atomic layers - so that short-wave blue light can shine through between the molecules, while yellow-gold light is reflected. Due to the special beating technique of the gold, the wafer-thin gold leaf has a wonderful pattern in the shape of a star. Axel Schmid deliberately used real gold: "With real gold, the energy stays there - inside the luminaire. No gold lacquer can imitate that. In addition, with real gold there is the surface structure. With the combination of plastic, valuable gold is brought into a household format, which is easy to use and maintain." A great contrast to gold is provided by the colours red (rods and cables) and blue (light point). The 24 Karat Blau can be extended as desired: 24 Karat Blau M is the name of the set that expands a single 24 Karat Blau into a larger hanging lamp.
