Handmade Lamps Part 1

I have made several lamps and lights over the years to varying success.

The combination of middle school electrical class and my dad being an electrical engineer lead me to know a decent amount about electricity and how to wire things.

This lamp, which is supposed to be a lighthouse, is a little cumbersome and weird, as are all my lights and lamps (and truly a lot of my projects in general). I just don’t have a great finesse for very many types of art, but I have a lot of ideas. Things always look a lot better in my head. I recall one time in middle school when we were doing sculptures in art class. I had this fantastic idea of a Greek guy throwing a discus or something. It turned out terrible. That was one of the first (of a very large number of) times I had a great idea and couldn’t execute it well. That’s basically the whole idea of this blog!

The bottom of this is mosaic tiles that I formed and glued around a large jar. I remember I had something on there to prevent sticking to the jar. It may have been saran wrap or wax paper or something. On the side, there is an opening for changing the light bulb. I believe the top also hinges open to change the top bulb. The bottom bulb might be a C9 (large Christmas light). The top bulb is a fancy regular size one.

The top is a bird house I got at Michaels. I vaguely remember having to cut out a piece of the base for wire to go through, but I don’t think I had a drill at the time so I don’t know how I did that. It was several, several years ago.

The switch is a 3-way so it can be all off, bottom on, top on, and both on. I got a power cord from Menard’s (I also got most of the other wiring supplies there) that’s just a normal light cord. For normal lights you don’t have to deal with calculating voltage or whatever. That all comes into play if you want to wire LEDs. I don’t exactly remember the reasons for any of that, and I really don’t remember how to do it. Ask my dad! He knows everything, and not just about electricity.

Be careful when working with electricity and make sure things are disconnected when you are working. Also wear safety gloves!

I’ll post sometime about other lights I’ve made with varying success.