“A flying saucer? You mean the kind from up there?”
“Yeah, either that or its counterpart.”
Plan 9 from Outer Space
I’ve had these colanders for ages, and I tried a couple of times to use them. But nothing quite worked out. Then I realized they just wanted to fly solo – or maybe in formation – over a bar or kitchen island, bringing a message of peace and silliness.
Plan 9 colander pendants
For details, visit my Etsy shop.
Several years ago, for an open studio, I made these two lamps from some lovely bronze gears I found at Alco and a couple of faucet pop-ups from Urban Ore. I also took on making shades from scratch, which was not a fun experience. Here’s what they looked like then:
Take One
After the show, I stored the lamps in one box and the shades in another in my bedroom closet. Time passed.
Then one day I noticed the box with the shades was open at the top. Ooops! My aptly named cat, Pandora, had snuck into the closet, gotten into the box, and made a little nest of the shades.
I tore everything apart and chalked it up to experience. More time passed.
Finally, I decided the parts were just too good to leave in storage. I found some ready-made shades I could work with, and after completing the Tiger, Tiger birdcage, opted to recover them in sheet music. But the same stripy motif wasn’t gelling for me. Then one morning in the half-light between dreams and waking, I got the image of circles. And there it was:
Danse Mecanique table lamps
For more photos, see this page, or visit my Etsy shop for dimensions, pricing, and other details. You can also contact me.
Just a few (grainy) photos from this year’s Albany Film Fest Gala, with my colander lights providing a bit of je ne sais quoi.
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One of the lamps I made for my house has a straw coolie hat for a shade. The straw is sewn onto layers of scrap paper, and when the lamp is turned on, ghostly images show through: indecipherable words and other mysteries. That hat, and the little house-shaped birdcage I found in a junk store, inspired this project.
What to use for the lining eluded me until I found some old sheet music at an estate sale. Structural dilemmas ate up more time. End to end, this light took me almost a year to figure out, and a month to build in my spare time.
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To see more photos of the finished product go to Birdcages. To read details about dimensions, possible uses, and pricing, see the Etsy listing or drop me an email.
I recently ran across Gilles Eichenbaum’s fabulous Garbage lamps. Unless Santa brings me a laser cutter for Christmas, I’m not getting anywhere near what he does anytime soon, but I’ve been inspired nonetheless. (Click an image to read more about each lamp.)
Argus Tower
Coffee de Lux lantern
Hopefully, 2012 will hold more like these … and much else besides.
Happy New Year everybody!
A few weeks ago I bought a tiny brass bottle at an estate sale. Two inches tall, heavy and stoppered, it looks like something a genie might live in – a really teeny genie, who can grant only very, very small wishes.
Like say you wish for a million dollars, a long and healthy life, and true love. But all the genie can give you is a quarter off the sidewalk, a good night’s sleep, a smile from a stranger.
But you’d rub the bottle anyway, right? These days, you’d take those slivers of luck and feel grateful.
Here are a few of my recent wishes. I hope you enjoy. (Click the images for more.)
Cozy Flan Tutu
Roswell
The Percolander
If you knew me, you’d know that platitudes like “It’s for the best” or “Everything will be all right” make me apoplectic. If I had a motto it would be “Every silver lining has its cloud.” But every so often I’m wrong – at least in the long run.
A few months ago, I loaned out this piece for an event.
Menage a Trois Cobra Calla
Then the other day I got it out again and started messing around, figuring I didn’t have much to lose. It didn’t go well at first. I was contemplating stripping it down to its components and giving up, when I remembered the copper leaves I had left over from another project. They were the key.
As You Like It Calla Lily Bouquet
I think I might like this now better than the original version, and I’m really hoping someone will give it a good home. (October 21 update: Someone has!)
Getting the upcycling thing right means collecting a lot of junk. But not just any junk. It has to be junk that murmurs in the precise seductive tone that gets my heart rate up a bit. And, of course, sometimes I’m fooled into picking up stuff that I’ll never use.
Just as often though, I find some weird thing that sits around for months or even years, until one day I find its perfect mate. This lamp is a perfect example.
Funny Face espresso lamp
I found the shade (or most of it) at Urban Ore over a year ago. I didn’t (and don’t) even know what it is, but it spoke to me, so I brought it home. Then recently I saw the espresso pot on eBay. I’d been wanting to make another lamp similar to this one, so I bought it.
When it arrived, I took it to my workshop/stash and started pulling things out to see if I had anything that would work with it. And within moments, I heard the other sound I listen for: the Click.
The Click is the sound you hear when you find that elusive puzzle piece. That one bit of blue sky in the picture you’ve been hunting for – for what seems like days. It’s the sound of getting it right.
It’s hard to believe that up until two years ago, I had never seen a single-serving dessert mold. Then suddenly, they were turning up everywhere I went. Certainly a sign. An image started to form in my mind…
…and I began collecting the parts to make it real. It took over a year, but finally I had them all.
Then I “just” had to assemble them…
Much fiddling and a few frustrations later, I finally got it all together. A mad project, which I call…
The Mad Hatter's Chandelier
Find out why it has this name.
Contact me or visit my Etsy store to learn more about this lamp or to buy.
Twinkle, twinkle, little light
floating up above at night
How I wonder what you are:
spaceship, lantern, disco ball?
Sputnik I
When I started
Sputnik I, I was still
thinking of UFOs.
(I like the way it
looks like it’s
coming in for
a landing.) But by
the time I got to the
second sister,
something else had
taken over…
Sputnik II
I guess you can only
ride a metaphor so
far, then you have
to get off and walk.
Please contact me or visit my Etsy store to learn more about these lamps.
Sputnik III
