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 valve cover was still on the shelf, staring at me. I pulled it down, and again tried laying out parts. I’d been using engine connecting rods for the vertical sections, and as I was digging through my collection I had to move one that, like the valve cover, had seemed too big to be practical. This time though, I turned it sideways, and everything clicked. A ring gear got cut and welded on to serve as the foot, and copper pipe facilitated the attachment/pivot point. As paradoxical as it might sound, throughout the build I kept thinking of a quote by Colin Chapman, founder of the Lotus Cars company. One of his mantras was “Simplify, and then add lightness.” This resonates with me because so many of my works are… heavy. How then can I make sure something isn’t, or at least doesn’t look, heavier than it absolutely has to be? In this case, I leaned into preserving the openings in the connecting rod. The result, I hope, is a minimal restriction of light. It’s in no way a ‘light’ lamp, but it’s only heavy where it has to be.

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Approximate Dimensions

16.5″ Tall, 28″ Wide, 12″ Deep