Sunday, February 21, 2010

Almost done with the first one...

With a bit of drilling and dowel-cutting, I've somewhat securely connected all of the pieces together. I still need to sand a few areas and lock the lighting fixture within the base, but it's turning out well.

Here are a few pics of the lamp with the LED bulb on and all other lights off:



I'm not sure what kind of finish I want to put on it. I have a half pint of stain & polyurethane in "olde maple gloss." I'm thinking about applying it to the base, and the outside and edges of the curved pieces.

G

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Metals Already?

Image presentations are tomorrow and here are a few pics that I've found interesting:
^Reel Light by Guy Brown
This one is pretty simplistic and would work well with the available materials in class. I'd have to transform it into a wall fixture and switch up the light bulb to something not as harsh, but I like the extension cord utility of it all.
^These are pretty simple as well but provide a nice mood. Layering of perpendicular bars could possibly recreate this look.
^Ogle Pendant Lamp by Form Us With Love
Clean design and useful at directing light. This would provide a challenge in creating this general form using only 1/8" rods.

^Pendant Light by Dan Black & Martin Blum
Awesome shape and structure. It would require a lot of the available material and cutting, but it would really build upon the aesthetic appeal if I made my lamp with this image in mind.

G

Friday, February 12, 2010

New Base


I have become too attached to the Oreo cookie base. I didn't want to drill a big hole in the center of it. It's now serving as a platform for my glass frog. Besides, I needed a taller base for my bulb fixture to rest in and so I created another base but out of two different woods. There's still a contrast between the two woods, but it's not as extreme as the last base.

The hole drilling was a little tricky since the base is so tall and so I had to drill both sides and also chip some wood away so the bit could go deeper. It turned out well though. All I need to do now is sand a little, lacquer the wood, glue the pieces together, and cut a little notch in the bottom of the base for the electrical cord to pass through.

G

Tuesday, February 9, 2010


The vacuum bag went well and Diana Lien was kind enough to share the bag with me both times. I didn't really run into any problems, just some minor shifting of the bendy ply strips but this was corrected when the six pieces were taken to the sander. I sanded off all of the visible glue and also sanded down the edges so there were no differences in the individual bendy ply strips. I still need to do some minor sanding to get all six pieces alike. I also need some extra fine sand paper to correct the appearance of the outside and inside of the curve.

As for my Oreo cookie base, it's coming along nicely. I still need to sand it down and then drill a hole through the center of the and also cut a space for the electrical cord to run through.

G

Friday, February 5, 2010

Round 1 of the Vacuum Bag


For my first go at the vacuum bag, I started out with the original six pieces of bendy-ply and taped them to the mold. It all went in the bag for approximately six hours and things turned out pretty well. However, I wasn't satisfied with the pieces and felt that a third layer would be necessary. I cut out six more strips of bendy ply and added them to the other pieces and mold.

G