Bright idea for magic mushroom lamp sparked on Hampstead Heath

Former Gospel Oak pupil Daragh Enright collected his Silver 'A Design' award at the International Design Awards in Italy this summer.

His sleek, graceful lamp is named after the liberty cap - called a “magic mushroom” because of its psychedelic properties - which he first saw as a boy growing in Parliament Hill Fields.

“Hampsted heath brings back warm memories," he said. "For my friends and I, it was like this massive, never-ending playground - we would climb the trees, collect conkers, and explore the outer reaches on our BMX’s. Later, we swam in the ponds, flew kites, went fishing and even sledging in the winter. The Heath was invaluable to my childhood development.

"Mushrooms are not so common now, since the Heath has been ‘wilded’, but the ‘design’ of the wild plants that have replaced the lawns still inspire ideas at every turn."

The Magic lamps come in eight different choices of wood and are available on Etsy (Image: Courtesy of Daragh Enright)

It seemed fated that Daragh should take up woodwork design. During childhood holidays, his parents often visited Ireland where they were close friends with furniture maker Eric Pearse. After taking a 3D design course in Leeds in the 1990s, Daragh apprenticed in Pearse's studios, later working in the US with another noted designer.

But after two decades designing and making bespoke furniture, he settled down in Bohemia with his Czech partner and three children. Wanting to spend more time at home, he decided to develop something he could make in his workshop and sell online.

Designer Daragh Enright grew up near the Heath and attended Gospel Oak School (Image: Supplied)

Recalling his childhood fascination with the Heath's magic mushrooms, he had, he quips, a “bright” idea for a lamp in wood, with tall, thin stems and shapely caps. It took Daragh two years and many prototypes to learn the technology to realise his vision.

The heavy base and stem are made from a choice of eight kinds of wood, while a touch-sensitive sensor controls the lamp’s three settings, and the translucent shade and delicate gills are made on a 3D printer in his workshop.

"The challenges of the lamp taught me how to use new materials and technologies," he says. "The Award blew me away to be honest. Unlike the other winners who work for big companies and design consortiums with global reputations, I am just one guy, a designer, and craftsman, with a small workshop making everything myself. Little me felt very big!"

The Magic Lamp launched on Etsy in January 2021 and sales have ahem, mushroomed “to everywhere, the US, Canada, Europe, Saudi Arabia, Japan”. Such is the demand that he has taken on a helper so he can develop other concepts.

The caps and gills of the mushroom are made from a 3D printer in Daragh's workshop (Image: Courtesy of Daragh Enright)

Prices start at £235. DaraghDesigns - Etsy UK