Rustnstuff: Artisan Lamps

Showing posts with label Artisan Lamps. Show all posts

Friday, January 3, 2020

Last three on the workbench

I have decided that I will not make any more Artisan Lamps. I want to put more focus on letterpress, my hammered metal work, some sculptural pieces and maybe some letter carving in stone.

As part of the start of the year decluttering process I will be getting rid of a lot of the stuff I have collected over time for lamp making. There will be a garage sale in a couple of weeks.

Still as I was sorting the shelves I came across a few pieces that I have thought I would turn into the last three lamps.

This blog shows some of the early stages of the three lamps to be. Some of the starter pieces are below.

The opening photo shows the base of a lamp using a wooden shoe making form - I quite like the quirky 'heel' - balance-weights from a clock. The other two lamps will be made from vintage oiling cans.

Whist there is still a way to go; but the three lamps are taking form.

Friday, November 30, 2018

Tall and slender - Artisan Lamp that is

I planned to finish paint the edge boards of our decks in the cool and shadow today; so I got started on an Artisan Floor Lamp on Wednesday. The lamp got finished this afternoon.

The tall slender lamp was inspired by five solid fuel pods off vintage plumbers soldering irons (after and before photos are above and below). The fuel pods act as the handle of the soldering iron and have a built in hand operated pressure pump.

I gave the polished bits a coat of clear spray.

And as is the way of my lamp designs it takes time to select other bits that will go with the main element. I needed a stable base so a cast-iron wheel and a cast iron pulley were selected. To make the whole lamp tight and stable I selected a 10mm thick brass metal thread to go right up the centre and hold it all together with nuts at the top and bottom.

I tested the assembling of the lamp on the workbench.

The finished lamp has come together well.

Time for a very cool glass of white wine on this warm day.

Sunday, November 18, 2018

Goal achieved

Over the weekend I found just enough time to complete the four Artisan Lamps. I had set myself as a goal of ten lamps to achieve.

As usual the lamps start life as pretty rough bits and pieces from my collection of found objects. But with quite a bit of grinding and polishing the true beauty of the pieces can be revealed.

Assembling and wiring can take time - sometimes it is difficult to get the wires around corners. But I did manage it and all the lamps were successfully tested.

The lamp with the large pressure gauge needs a bit more work to increase the weight and hence stability of the bottom. I had no more time to do that today so it will be a job for early next week.

Friday, November 16, 2018

Past halfway

I got a solid amount of time in the garage-studio today. This enabled me to finish off three more Artisan Lamps that I got started yesterday afternoon. That makes six now - so I'm over halfway to my goal of ten.

I'm quite liking this series - most tend to be a little smaller and have a good quirk factor.

A couple of photos of the selected pieces for two of the lamps before grinding and polishing etc.

Photos of the assembled and wired lamps

good feeling to have got that far at the end of the day. Though I could not leave the garage-studio before giving it a though vacuum and putting tools away - the place was a mess - need a clean space to get moving on the next four lamps.

Friday, November 9, 2018

Three out of ten completed

Over the last few days I have been making moves to assemble 10 Artisan Lamps. I'm making ten because that is the number of globe holders I have. The process as you know usually starts with getting a whole heap of potential bits and pieces on the worktable so I can run my eye over them and begin the process of deciding what goes with what.

I had sorted the design of three of the lamps on Thursday afternoon and made a start on two of them. Today I managed to complete three lamps. The photos below show the chosen bits before grinding or sanding and polishing.

Photos of the completed three - including new electrical cords and globes.

As you can see these lamps focus on the strengths of some of the pieces like the mincer in one; the large industrial cotton reels; and the antique gas light fitting. A good feeling to complete these today.

Friday, May 18, 2018

Delivery run - lamps, ladles and leaves

On Wednesday afternoon I did a trip to Dayboro to drop off lamps, ladles and leaves to Entangle living art.

The 12 Artisan Lamps on the workbench all went down.

Reports on the progress of these lamps have been included in earlier posts. For some reason the little quirky lamp below got a special reception!!!

Nine ladles were well received - see some of them below.

I also delivered 9 larger patinated leaves (20-25cm long); and three sets of small leaves (about 12-14cm long).

Quite a stash - hopefully that will result in sales for me and Nola. Today I made a good start on some 'funnel forms' and did a bit more sorting in the studio-garage. Time for a Friday night red wine I think.