Bejewled Lamp

Bejewled lamp made from Christmas Ornaments

If your like me you change your Christmas decor often and don't know what to do with last year's ornaments, how about an Elegant Lamp.

A simple drum shade and round acrylic base, both available from a lamp shop, round out this beautiful stack of ornaments. Each ornament was lightly sanded, brushed with walnut stain, blotted while wet, and sealed with water-base polyurethane.

Two 4-1/2-inch silver-color plastic ornaments
Two 2-3/4-inch golden plastic ornaments
One 2-1/4-inch golden plastic ornament
19-inch-long 1/8-inch IPS threaded pipe
100-grit sandpaper
Water-base wood stain (we used Minwax in American Walnut)
Paintbrush
Water-base polyurethane
Purchased 6-inch-diameter clear acrylic lamp base
Three knurled nuts
Lock washer and nut
Bushing
1/2-inch-long coupling
8-inch harp and harp retainer
10-inch-tall barrel lampshade with a top diameter of 11 inches and a bottom diameter of 12 inches
Brushed metal finial

Instructions:Cut holes in ornaments to accommodate the pipe. Sand the ornaments in a circular motion. Brush stain onto the silver ornaments and blot off; let dry. Seal all ornaments with two coats of polyurethane, letting them dry after each coat.

Secure the lamp base to the bottom of the pipe with a knurled nut above it and a lock washer and nut below. Fit bushing onto bottom of the pipe to protect the cord from fraying. Thread ornaments onto pipe. At the top, add coupling, secure the harp retainer with a knurled nut on each side, and wire and attach the socket. Add the harp, bulb, shade, and finial. Our finished lamp measures 30 inches tall.

Hemp Pendant Lamps

The fabulous idea from Craftynest.com =my new obsession!

Uber-talent Heika DeHart strikes again. These lamps she made are genius. Plus, don’t you just love how they look with her wallpaper? She writes: “I fell in love with West Elm’s abaca pendent lamp a few years ago but, as usual, my taste was more expensive than my wallet could support. However, I was sure that I could copy them at a fraction of the cost.” I love the natural look of the hemp, but you could also use white or bright-colored string.

Hemp pendant lamps

Supplies and tools
*large bouncy balls of various sizes
*clear drying craft glue (such as Aleene’s Clear Gel Tacky Glue) 1 bottle per ball approx.
*hemp string 20lb. weightestimated amounts needed:16 inch diameter ball—400 yards14 inch *diameter ball—300 yards9 inch diameter ball—100 yards
*plastic gloves (optional)
*trash bag or small drop cloth
*permanent marker
*ball deflator or something sharp to pop the ball
*light fixture and hardware (such as this one at Lowe’s)

1. Draw a circle on the ball with a permanent marker. This circle will mark a space on the lamp that needs to remain clear of string. The empty circle will be used in assembling the light fixture and will allow you to have access for changing light bulbs. If the light fixture you are using has lamp shades, make sure that the circles are big enough for the shades to easily pass through.

2. Cover your work surface with trash bags or a drop cloth, and put on gloves (this gets messy).

3. The best way, I found, to apply the glue is to squeeze a quarter size amount onto your fingers and run the hemp string through the glue and then wrap it around the ball. The string should stick fairly easily to the ball. I tried two other methods that also worked reasonably well, but were much more time consuming and made a bigger mess. You can fill a shallow tub with the glue and run the hemp string through it, or you can apply the glue directly to the string from the bottle.

4. Glue and wrap, glue and wrap, glue and wrap. Just keep going. Try to wrap randomly to avoid criss-cross patterns. The more densely wrapped the lamp is the stronger it will be.

5. Make sure to avoid wrapping string over the circle area. If there are any areas that seem weak, you can apply a little extra glue to give it more strength.

6. Repeat the steps 1-5 to make multiple lamps. Let the glue dry completely. (The glue I recommended takes about 48 hours to cure completely.)

7. Deflate the ball, either by using a ball deflator or popping it with a knife or scissors.

8. Remove the deflated ball from the lamp.

9. This part takes some basic electrical skills. Follow the installation instructions that come with your light fixture. While installing the light string, feed the wires through the circle hole of the lamp and up through the top, so that the light bulb will hang down in the center of the sphere.

I plan on making some to spruce up our back patio for summer bbq's, and if all goes well possibly some for our family room.