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.
It’s that time of year again, like last Christmas (and many many many others), my family made gifts for each other.
I made my sisters Lake Log lamps and bowls, made my mom a big mallet for cooking, made my nephew some wooden toys, and a couple of small chalkboards for the little guy as well.
My sisters made necklaces, plates and coasters out of resin, pillows, and toys. Take a look.
Haven’t done this in awhile, I saw this at Kate and Jon’s place.
Recently I gave a couple of sets of eyes to some kids (I can’t believe I haven’t done that before, stupid I know), it was great to see them play with them. They instantly started attaching them to metal things, to their hair, their clothes, so cool. Definitely one of the more fun things I’ve ever made.
A lathe chisel canvas roll-up carrying case (say that five times). She took an old canvas tote bag and turned it into this.
Thanks mom.
As I said before, my family has the Christmas tradition of making our presents. I finally got some of pictures of what my parents and sisters made.
My mom painted and reupholstered some chairs for my sister.
My one sister made a ceramic deer head for one of my other sister. It ended up looking very similar to this. Here is a pic of the armature.
One sister made a bracelet of Pennsylvania Dutch Hex Signs.
They also made charcoal drawings, scrapbooks, duvet covers, and much more. I just don’t have any pictures of them. My family does it up right.
My family has the Christmas tradition of making our presents. This year I made turned candle sticks for one of my sisters. I was inspired by some candle sticks I had seen in a design blog somewhere.
An oak side table (or stool, can’t decide) for another sister. Kind of an homage to the Eames Walnut Stools
And a patterned t-shirt using discharge paste (maybe the worst named product ever). Remember the S.E.A. Monkey?
