Posts about lighting

In memory of my lamp

Tragically, the second lamp I made at ITP camp is gone.

animation showing the lamp sitting on a nightstand. It is on in the first frame, off in the second, and the third shows a closeup of the lamp base, showing the gravel inside the wine bottle base.

I accidentally toppled it today. It fell, shattering into pieces.

I am not upset though. Most of the parts were salvageable and will be re-used in a future lamp. I have three wine bottles with holes already drilled in them, so I can make an identical lamp if I want to. I won't though. I realize now that filling the bottle to the top with gravel raised the center of gravity higher than where it should be. The next one will will be half filled with gravel. How about plastic or glass beads for the top half? I could make something that looks fishtank-like. I am sad that lamp is gone, but know that the next lamp will be better.

And now is a good time for a public service announcement on the proper way to clean up glass:

Very effective. I had bread-crumbs everywhere but that is much easier to deal with than the broken glass.

I made another lamp

I made another lamp; this time, out of an empty wine bottle.

Similar design and build as the first one, made with leftover gravel. The lampshade is the same color and fabric, so they're an matching set!

Someday I'll probably make third one and give it away.

animation showing the lamp sitting on a nightstand. It is on in the first frame, off in the second, and the third shows a closeup of the lamp base, showing the gravel inside the wine bottle base.

I made a lamp

I made a lamp out of an empty olive oil bottle.

After removing the label and cleaning it out, I drilled a hole near the bottom using diamond drill bits and a press drill. The electric cord runs through the center of the bottle up to the opening on top.

The bottle is filled with fish tank gravel. It was very hard getting it in the bottle! I tried using a funnel but it kept getting clogged. Eventually I settled on dumping it in the mouth by hand with the bottle in a large bin to catch the many rock pieces that did not go inside. This took some time.

The mauve lamp shade is made of silk. I think it matches the gravel quite well.

I also made that coaster sitting on the nightstand. That was a long time ago though.

animation showing the lamp sitting on a nightstand. It is on in the first frame, off in the second, and the third shows a closeup of the lamp base, showing the gravel inside the bottle.