My better half, Hayley is really into crafts and making things (cards, invites, photo collage, that kind of jazz) so I thought what better way to impress her than to make a table lamp of some description for the house. I've been with her for 10 years so you need to make these kind of gestures every now and then ;D
The genesis of the idea was when we both saw a Mason jar - a kind of home canning jar manufactured in America, used for storing jams, pickles and moon shine! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mason_jar - the jar we saw said 'Ball perfect Mason' the significance of this is my surname is Ball and Hayleys surname is Mason! So I bought a pair of the jars and after seeing a few on the internet that had been turned into hanging lights, I thought it would be cool to make a table lamp with them.
The jar...
So then I started on the actual lamp. I had some small box section that I cut slots in, then bent them over and welded up the holes to form the up right sections...
For the base I used an old Seat Ibiza brake disc, I welded up two of the hole and welded a plate over the centre bore of the disc leaving two of the wheel stud hole as a mean of passing the wire for the lights. I also welded in a nut to make an earth in the base.
The two uprights and the base...
I then made two small section to add detail and strength to the lamp...
I then ground the welds flat...
I didn't want the fittings, cable and bulbs to be new style stuff. So I searched online for vintage lighting and came across www.historiclighting.co.uk where I got...
Wire...
Bulb fitting...
The bulbs...
The bulbs in the jars...
And a quick moke up of the lamps...
Again due to the way the lamp looks I want the paint to be rustic, so I went for Hammerite black hammer finish, which has given a nice effect.
Sadly due to my lack of knowledge or experience with household electrics I didn't want to attempt the actual wiring myself. Luckerly a good friend of mine Phil is a qualified electrician so in return for helping him with the tubbed arches on his S13, he wired up the lamp and made sure it was safe.
The finishing touch was to glue some green felt to the base to hide the wiring and protect the table.
The finished product...
Well happy with it
and so was Hayley ;D
The genesis of the idea was when we both saw a Mason jar - a kind of home canning jar manufactured in America, used for storing jams, pickles and moon shine! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mason_jar - the jar we saw said 'Ball perfect Mason' the significance of this is my surname is Ball and Hayleys surname is Mason! So I bought a pair of the jars and after seeing a few on the internet that had been turned into hanging lights, I thought it would be cool to make a table lamp with them.
The jar...
So then I started on the actual lamp. I had some small box section that I cut slots in, then bent them over and welded up the holes to form the up right sections...
For the base I used an old Seat Ibiza brake disc, I welded up two of the hole and welded a plate over the centre bore of the disc leaving two of the wheel stud hole as a mean of passing the wire for the lights. I also welded in a nut to make an earth in the base.
The two uprights and the base...
I then made two small section to add detail and strength to the lamp...
I then ground the welds flat...
I didn't want the fittings, cable and bulbs to be new style stuff. So I searched online for vintage lighting and came across www.historiclighting.co.uk where I got...
Wire...
Bulb fitting...
The bulbs...
The bulbs in the jars...
And a quick moke up of the lamps...
Again due to the way the lamp looks I want the paint to be rustic, so I went for Hammerite black hammer finish, which has given a nice effect.
Sadly due to my lack of knowledge or experience with household electrics I didn't want to attempt the actual wiring myself. Luckerly a good friend of mine Phil is a qualified electrician so in return for helping him with the tubbed arches on his S13, he wired up the lamp and made sure it was safe.
The finishing touch was to glue some green felt to the base to hide the wiring and protect the table.
The finished product...
Well happy with it
and so was Hayley ;D
