Tuesday, March 3, 2009

swanky swag lamps

So I have this illness where I buy any vintage tin I can get my hands on. I don't need them, sure a few have been put to good use storing pasta, grits & beans, but there is an entire shelf of them in my house just mocking me. After years of admiring them and adding more to their ranks, it finally came to me, I can make lamps out of them! Little tiny 40 watt lamps, more for ambient light than anything, but super cute nonetheless. The original plan was to make table lamps where the lid would become the base of the lamp and the body of the tin would work as a shade. The mouth of the tin would face up so as to shine the light upward. I've also drilled a pattern of holes in the bottom for more light to show...
So those are still in progress, because they are more work than I had anticipated. As I often do when a project isn't a cinch I get annoyed and discouraged, especially when I think I have gotten exactly what I need and it turns out I can't use it. I bought a pre-assembled light kit thinking that one could remove & reattach the actual socket so as to thread the thing. Nope! No can do, it is fused in every way imaginable so my only option would be to smash it apart and that hardly does me any good now does it? So here I am stuck with extra stuff I don't need and another trip to Lowe's ahead of me...
Then I had a flash of brilliance! (that may be overstating it, but it felt good) I had several very attractive tins that would never work for the table lamp project because either they handles on the lids that I could not easily remove or they had lids so small that they would not make a stable base. Two words: SWAG LAMPS! This is what the cords I bought were originally intended for anyway, so it was perfect. It also happens that on my trip to Lowe's for the correct items to wire my table lamps I found a rack of decorative prisms on MEGA-sale. Score! So apparently the craft goddess approved of my new direction and was sprinkling sparklies to light my path to brilliance. (there's that word again, man am I full of myself or what?) I have only wired one, the copper with the amber drops, (the big drops are from Lowe's, the little ones were a vintage find), but the other 3 will be a cinch to complete, but of course Lowe's is now sold out of that kind of cord, so ironically I will be using the seperate lamp pieces that I bought for the table lamps to make swag cords just like the pre-assembled ones that started this whole mess. Do you think I should make some of those scrunchy cord cozies? Let me know what you think. (about the lamps AND the cord cozies)



2 comments:

  1. Ahahahahahaha! I have that black tin in my kitchen!
    What a "brilliant" idea though! I love the lamps but am at a loss as to what a 'scrunchy cord cozie' is...? Way to persevere through craft adversity and emerge triumphant, though bloodied, at the top of the tin can lamp mountain! Three cheers for you!!! :)

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  2. I did indeed come out bloodied, as the queen of "not using the right tools for the job" or "wearing protective gear" I cut the CRAP outta' myself on some sharp edges.
    As to the cozies, people often take fabric and make a narrow tube with it. The make it like 5 times longer than the actual cord so it will bunch up and give it "texture" and "interest" as the decorating shows like to call it. I personally prefer just the cord, but some folks like the cozies.
    Thanks for the input!
    :D

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