Back in August I made a lamp to enter into our local county fair, in which I took "Best of Class" and "Best of Show" along with "First Place" ribbons on a bowl and a drop spindle I made as well. I later entered them into the State Fair and took home a "First Place" ribbon for my lamp, drop spindle and a "Third Place" ribbon for my bowl. |
I wanted to make something segmented and I had a few long triangle pieces of wood I had been keeping for a future project. There were two types of wood, cherry and walnut. I decided on making a segmented lamp. So, the first thing for me to do was to glue everything together with the triangles at opposing ends, making a square. The next thing for me to do was to cut the pieces every 1\2'', drill a hole in the center where the tips meet, put everything on a piece of hollow all-thread used for lamp making, then glue everything together offsetting each piece just slightly. This took quite some time but I was happy when it was glued up and drying on my lathe. I used my lathe as a clamp with the piece in between both live centers, this let me glue it perfectly straight with plenty of pressure. After the glue dried I put it in a chuck and turned it on my lathe, as you see in the photo above. I also left a little bit unfinished at the end so I could inset the piece into the base when I glued them together.
I had planned a segmented base for it as well, but it didn't quite work out as planned; so, I selected a piece of quality walnut. For turning the base I used my bowl chuck, this allowed me to flip the piece to turn the other side whenever I needed to. I turned a hole big enough for the lamp rod to inset and also drilled a hole in the side for the cord to go through, I then test fitted it and used the drill bit to mark where I needed to drill in the bottom of the rod. |
The next thing for me to do was to install the lamp parts. I sourced my parts at a couple of different local hardware stores to get what I needed to make the lamp the way I wanted it. Once I had everything glued and drying I started on the pull chain. I used curly walnut for the pull with the same wax finish I used on the lamp. I drilled a small hole through it while it was on the lathe and then a bigger hole half way through, so it would catch the smaller bell shaped pull on the end of the chain. After all of that we rushed to the fair so I could get it entered on time.
We went the first day of the fair so we could see the ribbons we had earned. I also entered some plants and photos and my sister entered some things as well. We were disappointed to see that not all the entries were finished being judged, this included my lamp, so we didn't learn the final outcome until the last day when we picked up our items. When we picked up our items I was exited to see that I had gotten "Best of Class" out of the Wood Working division and "Best of Show" out of all the Open Class Expressive Arts entries.
After bringing it home I did some touch-ups to the base and also replaced the pull with a new one before entering it into the state fair along with my drop spindle and bowl. Again, we went the first day of the fair to see what ribbons I had received. I was exited to see that I had a "First Place" ribbon on my lamp and drop spindle and a "Third Place" ribbon on my bowl. Although my lamp and spindle were the only ones in their class it was still nice to have taken home some blue ribbons. I was disappointed to have little to no feedback on the comment cards but I guess it just left them "speechless".
After bringing it home I did some touch-ups to the base and also replaced the pull with a new one before entering it into the state fair along with my drop spindle and bowl. Again, we went the first day of the fair to see what ribbons I had received. I was exited to see that I had a "First Place" ribbon on my lamp and drop spindle and a "Third Place" ribbon on my bowl. Although my lamp and spindle were the only ones in their class it was still nice to have taken home some blue ribbons. I was disappointed to have little to no feedback on the comment cards but I guess it just left them "speechless".
The lamp was a fun project and I am very happy to have received all of the ribbons for it. I would like to make a couple more in the future and would love to see how the spiral would look with different wood combinations. If you would like to see the lamp in person or some of my other creations, I now have select items in our local yarn store called "A Little Knitty"!
A big thanks to Jen, the shop owner, for supporting a young entrepreneur!
For more information you can check out her website at http://www.alittleknitty.com/.
A big thanks to Jen, the shop owner, for supporting a young entrepreneur!
For more information you can check out her website at http://www.alittleknitty.com/.