Dezeen promotion: Dutch designer Egbert-Jan Lam has created a range of translucent wooden light shades for Spanish brand LZF, which are sewn together like items of clothing.

Each design in LZF's Stitches collection is handmade using thin wood veneers that are marked out with a pattern, cut, and stitched back together – much like in the traditional garment-making process.

When a light is illuminated inside one of the shades, it accentuates the wooden markings on each panel. But it also creates "threads of light" in the visible stitching that lines the edge of each facet.

"When artificial light is needed, I like to create as intimate an atmosphere as possible with as little lights as possible in a homely setting," said Lam, who leads a studio called Burojet.

"But I also like to create the best possible working environment with the help of white light, to get as near to daylight as possible."

LZF has worked exclusively with wood veneer since 1994. In 2000, the firm launched a treatment process for the veneer, called Timberlite.

This patented process gives the wood a resistant finish while allowing it to be bent and shaped in many different ways. As a result, the material can be kept at a thickness of 0.4 millimetres, ensuring it is translucent.

"The design and pattern arrangement of the veneer means that we can make a lamp out of a material that is not normally used for these kinds of shapes at all," explained Sandro Tothill, CEO and co-owner LZF.

"It sort of defies the physical properties of the veneer, which is something that makes it so interesting," he told Dezeen.

The Stitches collection is made up of four different shades: Mopti, Tombuctú, Djenné and Bamako.

Each one is named after a town or city in Mali, West Africa, which has a long history as a producer of embroidery and needlework. The shapes have also been designed to reference adobe brick mosques of each region.

Vegetable dye is used to create a range of colours, including white, yellow, orange, red, blue, grey, turquoise, chocolate brown and pink. These coloured versions are all made using tulipwood, also known as American whitewood.

The lamps are also available in two natural finishes, in cherry or beechwood.