Sunday, July 26, 2009

Funnel lamp how-to



I needed a little more light in the studio, but it had to be done on the cheap.

Scrounged materials to the rescue! For under $10 I now have some wonderful lamps.

Want to do something similar? Here's how!


I found some old funnels. One I bought for a quarter at a thrift store, one I scrounged from an old farmyard. Picked up some rusty heavy duty wire thingies too~ nobody knows what they were but they were round and suited my purpose.


Buy a lamp kit at the hardware store. This is just a simple socket and electrical wire. It cost me $5 each.

Stick the wire through the funnel hole and use a screwdriver to hook it to the socket.

Voila! You have a lamp.

Now to the fun part: embellishing!


I used some feathers I found on the road while jogging. Stuck them on with an old fashioned clothespin.



Used some fabulous silk ribbon for a bit of girly glam and soften the roughness of the old metals. My fave ribbons are always from Raffit Ribbon. Eliot Raffit's silks feel like your great grandma must have handed them down.

This time I used a champagne silk ribbon and tied it to the top, letting it hang down and hold up a rather odd crinkly round of rusty wire. You could use barbed wire or anything round, even a circle of grapevine.



Use old clothes pins to hang inspirations or notes to yourself, anything you like.


It's a fun way to add character and light to your workspace. A cheapskate's stylish dream!