craft stick + embroidery hoop drum light

I'm still working through some details on this one, but I wanted to show you an "in progress" of this drum light. I started with a couple of embroidery hoops and a package of craft sticks, all from a thrift shop. The craft sticks are a little like wooden coffee stirrers, but longer. 

I started with the outer part of the embroidery hoop pretty loose, and put a stick between the hoops at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock (imagining the circle as a clock, just for placement). Then I tightened the hoop somewhat to hold them steady. Those four sticks were the anchors, to hold the inner and outer parts of the hoop the right distance apart to insert more sticks.

Once things started to get unwieldy, I sandwiched the second hoop at the top.

All done. The next step was to slide the top hoop all the way to the end of the sticks. (I worked with the hoop a little low so that I wouldn't have so many slip loose.)

Done and hung up with cup hooks, surrounding the "boob light" in the hallway.

I like the effect, but I think it might need some tweaks; maybe with the sticks cut in half for a lower profile in my short hallway. Maybe a piece of thin, buffed plexi to help diffuse the light.  And I need a better way to hang it. I'm not in love with the exposed cup hooks.

If you can think of any ways to make this look more awesome, leave your ideas in the comments below! Thanks for stopping by to visit.

another industrial pendant to complete the set

One of the first art lessons I still remember is the one in which we were introduced to the fact that in nature, things often occur in odd numbers (plant leafs, flower petals, etc.). It was an introduction to the Rule of Odds, which is used often in art and design to keep your brain interested and engaged, and you can find it in art from ancient Japan through the Renaissance all the way up through current day.

At the end of a previous lighting post, I mentioned that the idea for a certain spot in our house was to eventually have three hanging pendants for balance. That's the Rule of Odds at play in our living room.

Light number 1 was a five-cent frosted pendant.

Light number 2 was a metal cage light made with salvaged parts. (I've switched out the light kit since the original tutorial to accommodate a standard-sized Edison-style lightbulb.)

And this, the third, is was originally a plastic cage light, like this one, purchased used for 50 cents at Bring (but I've seen them similarly priced at the Habitat ReStore).

I hung it from a coat hanger in the yard and sprayed with gentle layers of primer, aluminum finish, and flat black spray paint to give it the look of aged metal.

Here are all three together at last:

I have them all hung by hooks from the ceiling. 

My original hope was to hard wire them all together, but since I lack the practical expertise for that, the cords run bundled down the edge of the window frame and are turned on and off via a power strip. I hope to get the curtains rehung to hide them a little better soon.

I've seen a few lighting solutions lately that involve swooping black cable and exposed bulbs and while I love the look in a loft space (like the one Brooks designed on DesignStar), it's not practical with 8-foot ceilings. I'd likely accidentally hang myself.

Okay, now you know what you need to know to diy three pendant lighting fixtures on a teeny tiny budget. Of course, if you have a bit more money you want to spend, you can buy industrial metal light cages:

1 Satco 90-1310 Lamp Cage

2 Metal Lamp Guard - Black

3 Vintage Drop Light

4 Industrial Wire Bulb Cage

And if the price isn't much of an issue:

5 Wire Cage Industrial Pendant

6 Vintage Industrial Cage Light

7 Metal Cage

8 Wire Cage Light

9 Early 20th Century Cage Lights

But in my house, I'm likely to spend the $1000 per fixture on that last link towards the mortgage or something else really practical, and hang up the diy version instead. How about you?

Thanks for reading!

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Junkin' Joe at the Cottage Market

hometown tourist: the barn light

A few months back, I saw this little place called The Barn Light on Kickstarter, and sponsored their decorating project. It's a really fantastic space designed by locals Leah Fuller and Charlie Deese. The menu is pretty good, too.

We like the cafe atmosphere for lunch during the day; in the evening, I hear it's a great bar scene. Most lunch menu items are $6 and come with a little jar of house-made pickles.

Thanks for reading!

quick little industrial pendant light

With me, if it's not chairs, it's lights.

This one's a quick little pendant project that's very industrial chic. A few simple materials, too! I started with a clamp on lamp kit (a hanging lantern kit would be great, too, with the added benefit of longer cord length), and a low-wattage bulb.

The light cage came from Bring. It cost a buck. If you don't have one lying around from an old outdoor light fixture and you don't live in the Pacific Northwest (where salvaged building stores abound), you can try a Habitat for Humanity ReStore, or try searching for "light cage" on Amazon or eBay or Google. They run more in the 3-20 dollar range there. But they're still less expensive than the completed industrial pendants you'll find here, here, here, here, or here.

Spread out the prongs on your light kit a little. You want them to catch the edge of the light cage and support its weight.

Pass the cord through to see if it'll do its job.

Then, get out the 18-gague wire and pliers you should have thought of sooner. Silly you.

Two six-inch lengths, bent in the middle, ought to do it — one for each prong.

Thread a wire through each prong and wrap it securely around the top of the cage.

Here's a close-up from the side. Don't over think it.

Add a bulb! I'm considering adding some foil tape to the bulb to make it prettier, but it'll do for now. Mine is a torpedo bulb from Satco. I think it's a compact fluorescent. It's a 7 watt bulb with 40 watt output, and the base stays cool.

All done! Hang from a ceiling hook, or hardwire into the ceiling if that's your thing. If your cord is shorter than 8-feet, you can use a power brick hidden behind some stuff on a bookshelf or something, and plug your light into that. Voila!

Wheeee! I love it. It's hanging alongside my 5-cent pendant shade; the idea is to add one more for balance, but that can wait until I find my other piece (I hid is somewhere where it's really safe . . . even from me).


p.s. you can make these photos larger just by clicking on them, but you probably already knew that. ;)

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cut "glass" 5-cent pendant shade

I promise, you're going to laugh.

Partially, because yes, I've made another light fixture. And I'm filling up this post with lots of photos of it finished.

The tutorial is just too easy.

The other reason you're going to get a giggle is that this cut "glass" pendant is made from a plastic 2-liter soda bottle.

We don't drink much soda (this is actually a 2-liter sparkling water bottle), so this pendant is pretty much a one-off in our house. Until the next time I need some sparkling water, that is. And because it was a "test" project, I didn't take photos of it in-process. But I really should have. Obviously. Because it actually turned out. Against all odds.

If I make another one, I'll update this post with a step-by-step photo tutorial, but honestly, you can replicate this really easily.

Supplies:

1) clean 2-liter plastic bottle, with label and sticky stuff removed
2) hanging lamp cord kit from the hardware store (mine came from one of the paper lanterns I used to have in the other corner of the living room)
3) low-wattage LED light bulb (DO NOT use a standard heat-producing bulb)


Tools:

1) sharp utility scissors
2) ruler
3) pen
4) rubber band
5) palm sander


Steps:

1) Sand down the surface of the bottle to help diffuse the light and to make your pendant look cool. Wear gloves to protect your hands and work outside.

2) Cut the bottle neck off of the plastic bottle, as close to the top as possible, so that the plug end of your light kit will fit through the resulting hole.

3) Using the rubber band and the ruler to guide your pen, mark a line on the bottle and cut along the line with your sharp scissors. The bottle should be cut long enough to disguise the bulb inside the fixture.

4) Assemble and hang.

And there you have it! No, literally, you can have one. They're really easy and inexpensive.


Other Lighting Projects:

Another Paper Lighting Fixture (Design*Sponge-inspired cupcake liner paper lantern)

The Fanciest Thing in My House (faux capiz shell chandelier)

Lampshade Re-Do with Upcycled Milk Jug (milk jug flower petal lamp shade)

Progress (lamp made from an old cedar stump and thrift store lampshade)



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another paper lighting fixture

Yes, I make a lot of lighting fixtures: ReadyMade magazine and I can't seem to get enough of them. And while this one turned out really well (thanks to a DesignSponge tutorial), I'm a little unsure about it.

I read the tutorial on DesignSponge awhile back (based on this $898 light from Anthropologie)and pinned it to one of my Pinterest boards, but didn't really move on it. See, we have seven paper lanterns at present in the corner of our living room. And I've always kind of dug them, aside from the ugly cord messing up the view.

But closer inspection reveals that they're on their way out. There are small tears in the tissue paper here and there. There's some fading in spots. So, while I like them, it was time for a change.

I did things just a little differently; instead of white cupcake papers and patterned candy cups, I used the opposite. And I glued the candy papers into the cupcake papers before attaching them to the lantern to streamline the process a bit.

Here's how it looked when I was a little ways into the assembly:

It took a couple of hours, and here's what came out at the end:

Okay, it's growing on me. Especially in close-up.

The patterned liners are by Reynolds; a blue and grey starburst pattern in their line of Party Baking Cups.

But it does dim things down a bit, and it's pretty clear that the other lanterns need to go. Since I'm in the process of getting rid of the orange walls, the bright colored lanterns are a bit of a deal breaker (in addition to the aforementioned rips and tears). So I guess this is still a work in progress, which I'll update you on eventually. In the meantime, what do you think? Does it make the cut?

(p.s. other versions of this project can be found here, here, and here. there's a whole wide world of internet out there!)

(p.s. you can make these photos bigger by clicking on them . . . but you probably knew that!)

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