The second in my lamp series, this piece is fitted with a blue vodka bottle for the shade.  While similar in many ways to the first lamp in its basic structure, it also has quite a few of its own unique elements.  The blue bottle changed my impression of the aesthetic I wanted for this lamp, and the unexpected … Continue reading Desk Lamp Blue

My favorite part of making these valve cover lamps, is finding new ways to make the same functional shape. This stems partially from not having multiples of every element I’ve used before, but at a more fundamental level, I think of each new attempt as a new iteration of the idea. Each new piece is … Continue reading Red Valve Cover Lamp

Another day, another valve cover lamp. This day and this lamp started with something slightly different though, a valve cover that’s just a little smaller than the ones I normally use. Up to this point, I had worked with valve covers from V8 engines, which generally employ bigger pistons with shorter strokes. This cover is … Continue reading Willys Hurricane Valve Cover Lamp

Saved to Serve. I suspect the Salvation Army didn’t have whiskey decanters in mind when they started using that slogan, but it certainly serves well. Thrift stores are a fantastic source of interesting glass, and our local Salvation Army served up this bottle for me to save? That’s reaching a little maybe. In any event, … Continue reading Decanter Lamp

Why make only one lamp when you can make four instead? Because it’s a huge pain in the butt. I probably should have known this when I first came up with the idea, but then again, ‘bad decisions’ are kind of my wheelhouse. Lets rewind a little, a friend (we’ll call her ‘Helga’) texted me … Continue reading The Catherine Lamps

Most of my lamps take shape from the top down, this one grew from the bottom up. I started by welding the operating wheel from a 20″ waste gate valve to a ’48 Dodge Power Wagon differential housing that I got from a friend at church. Actually, I started by bringing a fresh load of … Continue reading 90mm Lamp Post

Why make one when you can make two? Normally the answer to this question for me is that I’ve only got enough of the key elements to make one. I have a whole box of valve covers, and shelf full of piston caps to play with though, so I thought I’d take a shot at … Continue reading Chevy Orange Valve Cover Lamps

Most of my materials are given to me by friends, some I find in junk piles, others I salvage from things I disassemble. Occasionally though, I’ll find something in a store my eye insists should be something else.  The glass shade on this lamp was just such an element.  Originally is was a glass flower … Continue reading Big Bulb Standing Lamp

Sometimes an element is too big to go on top of a project.  Sometimes I do it anyway.  I started with an oil pan from a 1950’s Jeep motor and nestled two whiskey bottles inside for light shades that can pivot out to access the bulbs.  I then used a satellite dish mounting bracket welded … Continue reading Intercontinental Street Lamp

My ideas don’t always work out. Generally, I’ve found this to be a good thing, as some of my ideas are basically stupid.  But let’s not dwell on that.  A friend of mine whose gallery I had shown at told me about an art competition that she was hosting, and encouraged me to submit an … Continue reading CGI Lamp

Michelangelo is quoted as saying, “I saw the angel in the marble, and carved until I set him free.”  I wish I could say that I follow a similar process, but most times my art takes more of a “connect the dots” path.  I plunge ahead for a while until I start to see a theme develop, … Continue reading TBM-1C Lamp

When I first started playing around with the idea for the valve cover lamps, this is one that I most wanted to make. This Jeep inline 6 valve cover is 28″ long though, and I could never settle on a way to suspend it that wasn’t overwhelmingly large. Fast forward ~ 5 yrs and this … Continue reading Chrome 4.2L Valve Cover Lamp