B.Light Design

I was so happy with the way the Jar Lamps I made this Christmas turned out, I made myself one. I was all out of walnut so I made the wooden base out of some scrap oak. But this was no ordinary scrap. The oak came from an old bourbon fermentation tank (where the yeast breaks down the sugar in the mash converting it to alcohol and carbon dioxide over a period of three days). Basically, this wood has soaked up a lot of bourbon over the years.

While shaping the wood, the smell of bourbon was intense, it made the entire shop smell like a distillery (not a bad thing). A smart studio-mate of mine convinced me to leave the base unfinished (thanks Josh). When the bulb heats up a bit and then the jar is removed, the smell of bourbon fills the air.

By far, the best smelling lamp I ever made.

A turned birch lamp I gave to my aunt Eve for Christmas. So I call it the Christmas Eve Lamp, aren’t I clever. I’m really happy with how the grain came out.

The birch came from the Pennsylvania Poconos.

Dimensions: 21″ H 6″ Diam
Finish: Tung oil and wax

My family has a tradition of making our gifts for the holidays (see previous here and here). This can cause a lot of extra stress on the ol’ peace on earth thing. Basically, if you haven’t started making by Thanksgiving, you’re going to be in the weeds all December. I decided to keep it kind of simple for at least some of the gifts this year. I call them Jar Lamps, mainly because they are made with jars (see how cleaver I am). I like the idea that a majority of the piece is made from an off-the-shelf item.

In the spirit of Lindsey Adelman’s You Make It series, here is the parts list:

Jar - Michaels, can’t find it on the site though
Porcelain Keyless Socket - Grand Brass
Braided Fabric Cord - Grand Brass
Cord Dimmer - Grand Brass
Threaded Nipple - Grand Brass
Turned Base - made it myself

It’s a pretty straight forward build — wired up wooden base, jar shade, and a cool Edison bulb.

Ok, so not as detailed as Ms. Adelman’s, but you get the idea.

The latest Lake Log Lamp. Similar to the previous ones, but this one has a wicked split up the side and was much more rotted than the original logs. It almost didn’t make it.

We had a little hand-made holiday card exchange at the office. This is what I made, a simple Santa head with an open-able beard.

The inside reads, “So that’s why Santa has a beard.”

Image taken by Naho Kubota

A couple of weeks back I worked on a table with C-Lab, Design Compendium, One Pot, Limn Architects, Highlands Dinner Club, and Architecture For Humanity. It was for the Design Like You Give a Damn Live celebration at the Armory on Park Ave in NYC. The goal was to get all of these great thinkers and incredibly capable people to sit down to a meal together, see what could be accomplished in such a short time (the meal and the table), become inspired, and basically change the world for the better. Simple, right?

Images taken by Naho Kubota

The project was on a very tight deadline, the table was built in two days. The first day (the one I had a part in) was gathering materials, cutting all of the pieces, redesigning on the fly, and starting to put the thing together. We did all of this at the studio. The second day (I wasn’t there for that) was a lot of finishing work and putting it all together at the Armory.

From the final images I can tell that it came together great (side note: the Armory is awesome). I got to work with some very talented and, more importantly, really great people. I’m very proud to have a small part in this project.

More images can be seen here.

The latest lamps I’ve been working on are made from walnut. The build process took place in three studios. The gluing up of the walnut took place at the Gowanus Studio Space in Brooklyn. The turning was done at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) Open Studios in Manhattan. And the finishing was done at my studio in the Poconos. The lamps kind of represent the spaces I’ve had the pleasure of working in recently.

The walnut was store bought, which I don’t feel great about. I typically like to know where my material is coming from, know its story. But walnut is such a beautiful wood that I will almost always make an exception. The lamps have built-in dimmer switches in the sockets and have black braided fabric cords. They are both finished with tung oil.

A friend asked for the parts list to the pot racks I put together awhile back. These pot racks couldn’t be simpler to make. It’s basically connecting a few pipes together and screwing it to the wall. The hardest part is making S-Hooks. Off-the-shelf would work fine, but I’m weird, I think the handmade hooks look better.

2 - 3/4″ galvanized flanges

2 - 3/4″ 90 degree galvanized elbows

2 - 3/4″ galvanized close nipple

1 - 3/4″ galvanized pipe, the length will be roughly the length of the pot rack, I used 12″ and 24″

I also made some S-hooks. Off-the-shelf S-hooks should do the job, but I liked the handmade look. I used 1/8″ steel rod stock

I also polished the pipes with steel wool and then waxed them. I’ve done this every couple of years, keeps it looking shiny.

Last Laser Monster Mirror post, I swear. Finally finished the Laser Monster Mirror, and overall I’m very happy with the results (granted I already have a bunch of tweaks I want to make to the design).

Thanks again Design Glut, NYDesigns, and Length Width Height.

After seeing Inception, I had to make my own totem. Two turned wooden tops (one oak, one ???), finished with tung oil and wax.