What is that beautiful shell-like object, you say? It's an outdoor lampshade made of Corian by Sterling Surfaces, a Massachusetts company that specializes custom fabricating pretty much anything out of solid surfaces...

We stumbled upon Sterling Surfaces' lamp shade on Flickr quite by accident. But it caught our eye, as they've created a thin, translucent shell out of Corian. We didn't know the material could be fabricated so thin and polished to a sheen like the way it is here. This shape showcases those traits beautifully.