Photos by Garrett Cook Martin Meulenbeek creates table lamps from an assortment of items.

PROFESSION: Lamp designer

COMPANY: Fraai Lighting, Scottsdale; (602) 708-6853; fraailighting.com; lamps  available exclusively through Level 9 Gallery; Cave Creek, Ariz.; level9gallery.com

EDUCATION/TRAINING: Engineering degree from the Netherlands; primarily self-taught

BACKGROUND: Martin Meulenbeek was only 4 when he tapped into his technical gene and took apart his mother’s toaster to “see how it worked.” Today, he applies this left-brained approach to figure out ways to turn antique accessories and eclectic finds into one-of-a-kind light fixtures.

Originally from the Netherlands, the semiconductor engineer discovered his creative outlet as a lamp designer 10 years ago when wife Mickey, an interior designer, asked him to electrify a vase. “I made a lamp and she liked it, so I made another,” he jokes. In 2009, he started his company, Fraai Lighting (Fraai is Dutch for “elegant”).

His home studio exemplifies the merging of his creative and technical sides—wires, harps and finials are neatly tucked into categorized drawers; shelves are filled with an array of items found at antique stores or crafted by artisans waiting to be turned into bases; and lampshades hang from the ceiling.

To create a lamp, Meulenbeek starts with such objects as a water jug from India,  an antique Chinese lunchbox or a ceramic statue of a chicken. He then wires the piece into a base and adds a lampshade and decorative finial. “The fun part is figuring out the wiring, then remembering it for next time,” he quips.

The artisan applies this same technical creativity to each one-of-a-kind lamp that he makes. “The piece dictates where you go with it,” he remarks. If a design is not what he envisions, he starts over, adding or removing decorative accents until he is satisfied. Or if a piece chips, “I cut it off and make a shorter lamp,” he states.

Meulenbeek continuously puts his skills to the test by utilizing objects that are difficult to work with, such as old jugs from Africa. “I have pieces where I thought, ‘That will be a real challenge,’ but I have never thought I couldn’t do it,” he concludes.

made from an antique Chinese lunchbox

made from a handmade raku-fired ceramic vessel topped with a hand-forged iron finial

made from a sculpture of faces placed on an acrylic base, with a silk drum shade