Archive for the ‘Coffee & Tea Pots’ Category
February 23, 2013
Mae West coffeepot lamp
- Buy a nice-looking old chrome coffeemaker at an estate sale.
- Take it home and spend a couple of hours trying to get the two halves apart.
- Eventually realize that the rubber seal in the middle is fused to the metal from overheating.
- Destroy the seal, bit by bit. Success! You now have two separate pieces.
- Ignore the pieces for several months while you work on other projects.
- Find a stainless-steel wok lid at a thrift store. Take it home.
- Procrastinate through the holidays.
- Decide it’s time. Start drilling.
- Stack up the pieces. Realize you need a couple more parts. Find one in the small parts stash. Admit the other one stumps you.
- Take a break. Eat lunch. Realize what you need is part of the coffeemaker, it’s just in the wrong place.
- Start cutting. Keep cutting. Cut yourself. Swear a little.
- Stack up the pieces again. Cut pipe and string them together. Feel ambivalent.
- Set it aside for a few days.
- Drill more holes. Clean the parts.
- Rough assemble the lamp, but don’t wire it.
- Take it upstairs and stare at it for a week. Tinker with it occasionally.
- Admit it’s still not right. Realize how to fix it.
- Start cutting. Finish cutting. Stack up the pieces again. Phew, finally!
- Assemble and wire the lamp. Do the fiddly finish work.
- Insert bulbs. Plug it in and turn it on. Bask.
- (Optional) Write a post. Leave some things out.
The Albany Film Fest is coming up next week. You can see this lamp in the flesh at the Friday night gala and possibly on Saturday as well. After that it will be available in my Etsy shop.
Posted in Coffee & Tea Pots, Table & desk lamps, What's New | Tagged chrome lamp, coffee pot lamp, home decor, how to, interior design, kitchen, kitchenware lamp, lighting, metal, off beat, one of a kind, OOAK, recycled, reuse, stainless steel, sunbeam coffeemaker, upcycled | Leave a Comment »
October 21, 2012
I’m not by nature a tidy person. I let things go, too long. Clutter piles up until I’m forced to deal with it. I seldom dust, or clean the bathtub.
But when I’m making a lamp, I tend to go the opposite direction. I want to make it maybe too neat, too matchy, too shiny.
So this time, when I found this beautifully tarnished silver coffee pot, I vowed to work with it as is: chipped spout, uneven patina, slight off kilterness.
That part was easy. It was the shade that was hard. I’d picked up several wire breadbaskets, liking the shapes and figuring there must be some way to use them. And I realized that one of them would be nearly perfect for this lamp – except that it needed to be turned inside out. Which meant disassembling and then reassembling it, preferably without destroying it in the process.
I’d work on it for awhile, hit a snag, and set it aside. Weeks would go by while I worked on other projects. Prying the bottom off was easy. Cutting the wires short enough to work loose took time, trial and error, perseverance. And of course some came off altogether. Reassembly was easy, but reattaching the wires…not so much. I set it aside again.
Eventually though, it came together. One or two last minute inspirations added a bit of extra flair. And now that it’s done I’m sure I was right. Letting the work develop in its own time allowed for better ideas – and even materials – to come along.
It’s almost as if the lamp invented herself. And perhaps she did.
Ms. Havisham
For details or to purchase, visit my Etsy shop.
Posted in Coffee & Tea Pots, What's New | Tagged coffee pot, home decor, interior design, kitchenware, lamp, lighting, metal, Miss Havisham, off beat, one of a kind, OOAK, recycled, reuse, silver plate, table lamp, upcycled | 1 Comment »
May 29, 2012
Sometimes the same idea, with small variations, can give pretty different results. Think of steaming cafe au lait and sweet, black iced coffee. That’s these two lamps.
Percolander 2: Jules Verne
Frosty the Madman
Made of colanders and coffee pots of different vintages, plus lids, a dessert mold, part of a cocktail shaker, a valve handle, and lamp parts old and new, one looks like an unlikely spacecraft – part rocket, part balloon; the other, something from a Rock Hudson-Doris Day movie. Not much alike, but definitely fished from the same gene pool.
For details or to buy, visit my Etsy shop. To see more photos, go to Coffee & tea pots.
Posted in Coffee & Tea Pots, Colanders, Table & desk lamps | Tagged aluminum, cafe, coffee pot lamp, colander, desk, home decor, interior design, kitchen, lamp, light fixture, lighting, metal, one of a kind, pendant, percolator, reading lamp, recycled, reuse, sci fi, shadow, spaceship, stainless steel, upcycled | 2 Comments »
December 12, 2011
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!
Posted in Coffee & Tea Pots, Table & desk lamps | Tagged aluminum, bicycle gears, coffee pot, home decor, interior design, kitchen, kitchenware, lamp, lighting, metal, Metalight, off beat, one of a kind, OOAK, recycled, reuse, spaceship, stainless steel, upcycled | 1 Comment »
October 23, 2011
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
Posted in Coffee & Tea Pots, Colanders, Hanging lights, Table & desk lamps | Tagged aluminum, cafe, ceiling, chandelier, colander, desk, dining, drop light, flying saucer, handmade, hanging, home decor, interior design, jello molds, kitchen, kitchenware, light fixture, lighting, metal, Metalight, off beat, one of a kind, OOAK, pendant, pendant light, recycled, restaurant, retro, reuse, sci fi, shadow, spaceship, tapestry, upcycled | 1 Comment »
July 25, 2011
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.
Posted in Coffee & Tea Pots, Table & desk lamps | Tagged aluminum, audrey hepburn, CFL, desk, espresso pot, imagination, kitchen, kitchenware, lamp, lighting, metal, Metalight, recycled, reuse, rosie the robot, upcycled, urban ore | 2 Comments »
