Lamp #26

First lamp design to make the leap from semi-circle to full-circle

It is made using the same fiberglass I found in Swansea, some dowels from the estate sale of a ceramicist (used as rolling pins), and a mysterious block of wood with a concave dip carved out of it that Maya found for me. We later discovered that it is an herb chopping board, which is used with a rounded two-handled cutting knife.

I wanted to deal with the cord in an elegant way, and having it run through the dowels like I have in the past wasn’t an option. So I arrived at this solution, binding the cord to the dowels with a thread wrapped around tightly (I used a fishing line guide tutorial). I sealed the thread with wood glue. I obsessed over the cord with this lamp more than others. I wanted the cord to be a naturally yellowed, old, worn-in plastic color. I had a few contenders but none were the right length. I had some that were the right length, but they were too white or too fresh. The old brown-ish cord came from an old work lamp I got at an estate sale. Same went for the pull-string, it had to be old and yellowed with an old pull thing.

I sourced the plug from the estate sale of Alex Trebek, who had a really fabulous home workshop with tons of old hardware.

My issue with this lamp is that the bare bulb can so easily be seen if the lamp is placed below eye level. Exposed bulbs really bother my eyes, which is why I started making lamps in the first place. I intended this as a bedside lamp, which would mostly be used while lying next to it.