Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Nearly a Double Fail Becomes a Brilliant Lamp

After I made my first tin can light, I decided I wanted to make another one. The first one served as great task lighting (which my husband needs) but it didn't match the other lamp that served the kitchen and living room. The first lamp was a touch lamp that has stood there for almost as long as we've been this house. The new task light was perfect for hubs but we still liked the touch lamp on its lowest setting to serve as a light for watching television etc.

When I bought the lamp for the first light, I had bought a second light since I was not sure which one I would prefer. I thought the bigger shade made out of an industrial sized tin can would work for the second stand. I drilled holes in random sizes and locations on the top (or bottom depending on your point of view) of the can. I then painted it with hammered copper spray paint to match the first lamp. When I tried it out the lamp stand, I was disappointed. It looked really goofy - the lamp was too tall.

I was frustrated and ready to call it quits when I decided to try the shade on the old touch lamp. I liked the way it looked but the hole for the finial was larger than the hole I had drilled. I didn't have a bigger drill bit so I thought I would widen the hole using the Dremel. It skidded all over the top and made a bigger hole than I needed. But wait!! I had a washer that I had (for some random reason) painted black. So I used the washer then the finial!! Success.



The coolest thing is how the holes send little lights all over the ceiling that look like fish scales (of course, I don't have a picture of that).


For those who might be curious, my husband has an eye disease called keratoconus which effects his vision and makes night vision and low light vision particularly difficult.

If you want to see a cool photo I took of the stitches in his eye after his cornea transplant  you can see it here.

I will be sharing this at:

Moon River
Get your craft on Thurs.

21 comments:

  1. That is neat Melissa. I was once a nurse on a floor where we cared for eye surgery patients and I enjoyed it a lot. The corneal transplant patients did well but I am sure all of that is outpatient day surgery now. I am an old relic. hugs♥olive

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  2. How neat, and resourceful, too! Would it be possible (practical) to make holes in the shape of a constellation, so you could project the Big Dipper, for example, on the ceiling?

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  3. Love it! You always do the neatest stuff! I want to try this... Anna

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  4. The lamp looks cool. I hope you'll show a photo of the fish-scale lights on the ceiling.

    Ick! There's no way I'm looking at the eye photo... Close-up shots of eyes freak me out for some reason. Especially if there is something there that shouldn't be, like stitches...

    Sophie

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  5. I love the little holes in the top, with solid sides. Not your typical tin can light! I love the copper color, too. I am too scaredycat to look at the stitches, but I hope his vision is stable and the surgery was helpful for his condition. Just keep making lights this pretty and task light will also be decor.

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  6. That is super cute. Very original!
    -Polly
    www.learnandgopollyco.blogspot.com

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  7. great idea! I have recently been on a tin can kick and this is awesome! Thanks for sharing.

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  8. Let there be light...and it was good. What a fun lamp!

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  9. Glad you made it work! I like it.
    Sometimes you just have to be a little flexible with a project to get it right.

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  10. Looks great - love the copper finish and the little holes in top, I can imagine how pretty the little lights on the ceiling are..

    The eye photo is cool, I wasn't sure whether to look not being keen on eye stuff (one of our clients at work makes intraocular lenses and I've had to see some pretty gruesome videos and photos in the line of duty!) I think it's because it's in B&W it just looks cool!

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  11. As always a brilliant upcycle. Is there anything you can't do?

    Thank you for linking up to Upcycled Awesome number 14!

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  12. I am amazed that you can make something so simple and worthless into something so lovely and priceless. Love it. Lisa~

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  13. What a great little lamp. I can just imagine the shadows and lighting on the ceiling. What a fun project.

    Wow, the stitches looked awesome, I had never seen stitching in the eye. It must have hurt.

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  14. love the tin lamps. both of them!

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  15. Looks great! I love those lamps. I'm glad it worked out! Good thing you had that washer :-)

    Those stitched must have hurt pretty badly. I didn't want to look at the pic because it sounded so gross. But I couldn't resist. I had never seen anything like that! crazy what doctors can do.

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  16. This looks awesome, I love it and the holes are great!
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  17. That is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! So cool! I want one!
    You should come link this up at my Making It With Allie Party!
    AllieMakes.Blogspot.com

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  18. This is so cool, so modern, so interesting - and a recycling project to boot ! Wow.

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  19. Very cool! Love it!

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  20. really cool! I bet the ceiling looks awesome!

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  21. You've done it again, Melissa. Your recycled-finds lamp is terrific. Can you imagine how many less landfills we would need, if we all kept making cool things out of "trash"?

    Thanks for linking to my party. I would love to have you join me each week.

    Liz @ the Brambleberry Cottage
    http://thebrambleberrycottage.blogspot.com/

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