Whiskey Lamp #2

Gentleman Jack’s

A friend gave me a Gentleman Jack’s bottle. Looking at it I imagined a posh club in blacks and whites, with men drinking whiskey wearing white shirts and wearing black Stetson’s. I took that image and designed the lamp.

I made the shade lower than the others I’ve made recently by 2 inches. I tried two different ways to put the mane in the shade, the first is outlined and the second is etched. I pained both flat black so the name is more of a hint. The wood grain stills shows a little and I’m torn of wether it should or not. The wood grans gives it a little bit of rustic look. Flat black would make it classier.

When it came time to fill the bottle I though abut black sand, but worried that would be too much. I looked at white sand, but decided that it would wash out the label. Then I say a bag of blue fireplace glass. I like the contract of the blue to the monochromatic bottle and shade. It’s either a cowboy wearing a blue silk shirt instead of his normal denim, or a call out to a thin blue tie against the crisp white shirt.

Whiskey Lamp #1

Jameson Whiskey

This is my first commissioned lamp. A friend at work wanted a special gift to give her father. I took the ship from the coat of Arms on the bottle and put it on top of some longitude and latitude lines. I did each of the four side differently: the ship, a map, the coast of arms and the JJ&S logo.

I also added a personal touch by putting her mom’s and dad’s names in the design. I looked up Bob Ireland. There is not a city called Bob, but google did show me a Bob’s Bar so that’s marked on the map.

I also found out white writing my newsletter, that I spelled Whiskey two different ways. I figured that I had dropped the ‘E’ at the end, but no. I dropped the “H”. Good thing the is a Christmas give so I have time to make it again.

Tequila Lamp #7 – Exotico Tequila


I finally, almost, finished the bottle of Exotico Tequila is I could make a lamp shade for it. The color on the shade is hand painted by my daughter Emma and myself.

I really like the way it came out and how I did the four faces differently.

As I finished the lamp, I also realized that it was time to send out my newsletter so I did the newsletter about the lamp. Check it out here. As part of the newsletter, I also wrote a short story about a little girl learning about a different culture and the Day of the Dead.

 

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Vodka Lamp #2

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I was busy this last weekend, or rather not busy, so I created four different lamps – Here’s the third one. I posted two other yesterday. Continuing on the cheap vodka lamp series, I also received an empty New Amsterdam Vodka bottle.

The thing that intrigued me was the way the bottle has trapezoids where one gets bigger at the top and the other at the bottom. I tried to reflect that in the shade. I like the way it came out, but I think I’ll do another one and make the ones with the smaller bottoms even smaller. The challenge was to keep the top of the shade smaller than the bottom.

What do you think? Did I capture the feel of the bottle?

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Vodka Lamp #1

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I haven’t finished my Tequila Lamp series yet, but the opportunity presented itself (an empty bottle) so I couldn’t say no (since my tequila bottles sill have tequila in them.)

I started with the shade I did for the Tonala bottle and made it into an eight sided pyramid. I had a fit problem with the first pieces I cut, because the angles are different and so the lengths of the sides have to be different. I also need to seal the inside so the light doesn’t shine through on the edges. Do they make black caulk?

I took the mountain from the bottle, as well as the name. I stained the bottle blue to match the blue glass of the bottle (which is almost lost in the yellow of the light. I might replace it with a white LED bulb.

It may not be the best vodka to drink, but the bottle is cool.

 

Tequila Lamp #6

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Lamp number six in the tequila-lamp series is finished.
 
This one has a more traditional four sided pyramid shaped lampshade. I took the hand painted agave from the Tonala tequila bottle and put it on the shaded. On the bottle, the agave goes around the corner. I thought about doing that on the shade, but decided that might be too much reflecting of the bottle.
I made the shade and put it on the bottle, but decided it looked funny being so short, so I created a 3 inch raiser to go between the bottle and the shade. Much better.
It makes me a little sad that I created the lamp before I had even opened the bottle. The label on the bottle talked about how classy it would be to server the Tonala from the glazed pottery bottle (glazed inside and out) with hand painted agave on it. The tequila is now sitting on the shelf in the pantry, in a generic clear glass bottle.
The things we have to do for our art.

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Tequila Lamp 3 Update

I final got the bulb for my third lamp – but, of course, it didn’t work. I design my lamp for a Channeler bulb (a T16 base). That’s what the webpage said i was and that’s what I bought. What came is a standard base (T26) so it didn’t fit. Friday I received the socket reducer which allows me to screw the bulb in.

Turns out that the bigger base caused another problem; the hold in the bottom of the shade is smaller the the base by 1/8″. This means the shade has to be put in first then the bulb slid down inside the shade and then somehow the build has to be turned to screw in. I ended up putting electrical tape on the bulb to have something to hold onto.

I like the final results. The bulb goes all the way to the top of the shade. About 1/4″ from the top, just above the top circle you can see int he picture. There isa  little dark zone at the very bottom where the socket reducer is, but all in all, I think it came out well.

I also like the pattern it makes on the wall.

Tequila Lamp #4.5

Lamp number four in the #tequilalamp series has another side to it. On the backside I did a traditional laser cut 1800, at least traditional for me. For this lamp I selected an 1800 Tequila Silver bottle. The shade has the same angles as the bottle and I think the rations are good. This is the smallest of the four lamps I’ve made, standing total of 17.5 inches tall.

Unlike all the other lamps I’ve done, almost all of the light comes down onto the table top. This might actually make a good bar light.