www.glowoflava.com | Inside Crestworth's Lava Lamp Factory in the 1970s | The Anodising Process. Please see slide below.

Crestworth's lava lamps were beautifully crafted, often seen with spun finishes. Designs like the Astro, Astro Mini and the fabulous Astro Lantern were often anodised in a copper finish. Below, courtesy of Mr Clive Wheeler who managed Crestworth's anodising facility, shows what it was like inside Crestworth. Note the boxes holding stock, the giant racks holding the spun components. This is a rare look inside Crestworth and the history of the lava lamp.

"The various spun aluminum components came by van each day, & the completed work dispatched from the previous day. Mr Lennox Gordon Polished each piece & they were then attached to custom made titanium racks, were chemically brightened in a phosbrite solution operated by Mr Steven Luke. From here the racks were loaded onto copper buzz bars & lifted by a mobile carriage, then lowered into one of the three Anodising tanks. Once anodized, they went through three fresh water rinse tanks & into one of two boiling nickel acetate sealing tanks. When dry each component was inspected for imperfections, hand polished, wrapped in tissue, boxed & ready to go back to Crestworth House for assembly." - Clive Wheeler - Crestworth 1970s Employee

Image 1 Below: "Inside the Crestworth Factory at the start of the Anodising process. Note the twin copper buzz bars to transport the parts through the various tanks. Also the boxed finished parts ready for assembly later. We stock piled a lot several months before Xmas & again nearer Easter. There were a lot more than this stored at Crestworth in Poole so it will give you an idea of the number of lamps created at that time. By Xmas day we were virtually out of stock. During our quiet times we slowed production & did some maintenance.

Supervisors etc at the Poole factory were Mr Betts. Mike Start. Ken Bartram. Paul Mitchel. Receptionist was Kate Williams & General Manager Doug Walton." - Clive Wheeler - Crestworth 1970s Employee

Image 2 Below: "Mr Steven Luke is operating the Phosbrite chemical brightner before the Anodising process. Some parts can be seen racked up & the large square item is the oil fired heater for winter time." - Clive Wheeler - Crestworth 1970s Employee

Image 3 Below: "This shows most of the line, with the parts being transported to the next tank." - Clive Wheeler - Crestworth 1970s Employee

www.glowoflava.com | Crestworth's Living Jewel - Fast Shimmering Glitter in a bottle. Please see slide below.

Crestworth developed who kinds of glitter lamps. Glitterlite by Crestworth featured slow moving glitter and was often seen with smaller pieces of glitter to create a dazzling slow moving optical effect. Crestworth's Living Jewel was Crestworth's fast moving glitter lamp that created a truly stunning effect of glitter swirling inside the lamp, just like a Jewel that is alive. Below one can see a Crestworth Living Jewel and one can also see Edward Craven Walker holding a Living Jewel vintage Crestworth glitter lamp.

www.glowoflava.com | Mathmos in the 1990s | The Second Era of the Lava Lamp Please see slide below.

The 1990s was a time of reinvention and rebirth for the lava lamp. Cressida Granger & David Mulley approached Edward Craven Walker, the inventor of the lava lamp and took over the running of the Crestworth company. The second era named Mathmos relaunched the original lamps and created a second era of success. Crestworth became known as Mathmos, named after the bubbling force in the cult 1960s film Barbarella. A name that is very much suited to Mathmos and the attributes of the lava lamp. The amazing floorstanding Lunar lava lamp can be seen in the image below and this earlier photography showing the Lunar in a beach setting is a creative way to display such a stunning floor standing piece. New designs such as Telstar and Lunar were created, Mathmos also introduced other lighting concepts such as aromatherapy lamps such as Sputnik and beautiful fibre optic lamps such as Jupiter 2. Sputnik featured a space age design like so much of Mathmos' items and was offered in three anodised colours and is a charming rare Mathmos product to find today. Jupiter 2 featured the optics cleverly placed under a polymer dome to protect the fibres and extend their life. Jupiter 2 is perhaps one of the best fibre optic lamps of its era and a reflection of the earlier Crestworth's Galaxy product.

Lunar priced at the high end of the market, was the ultimate mainstream lamp of the 1990s with an rocket inspired form. Lunar also has a smaller sister product known as Telstar, a table top design originally introduced in a wide range of beautiful anodised colours. In the early 1990s two new Rocket designs were launched by Mathmos. Lunar as seen in an early promotional image is a stunning floor standing design, featuring bottles seen in alcoholic beverages and beautiful polished bases and caps.

Lunar became a cult Mathmos product and a stunning piece of Mathmos' history and legacy. Lunar is immortalised in the photography below where the models give the appearance they are about to take off or just land.

Lunar's form was draws inspiration from the rockets seen in Tintin comics and the beautiful photography capture it perfectly below.Today, Lunar is one of Mathmos' most desired products and is a tribute to the 1990s and the success of the era.

Many of Mathmos' products were inspired by Crestworth's creations. Astro was modernised with a silver finish, Astro Mini became Comet and then the wildly popular Astrobaby. Over the 1990s, Mathmos became a powerhouse of ambient kinetic lighting. Below one can see a range of 1990s Mathmos brochure images which define the 1990s perfectly.

Mathmos Telstar Postcard | Greatings From Outer Space Please see slide below.

An interestering piece of Mathmos 1990s Promo material, a wonderful Mathmos Telstar lava lamp postcard. Why not tell everyone about the wonderful Mathmos lava lamps? Greatings from outer space.