Making a Spiked Black Metal Lamp

For a long time now, I've been very inspired by the idea of a black lamp with metal spikes. 

My 'home decor' board on pinterest has, for a while, been home to both this image of a piece by artist Rebecca Johnson from Bughouse and this piece by Andrea Maestri. Unfortunately though, lamps like this are pieces of art rather than house products so, as a result, are either not for sale or waaaay out of my price range. 

For that reason, I had a go at making a spiky lamp myself, diy-style. Hopefully it's different enough from any existing pieces so as not to be copying them (I've not seen any others with a plain black shade and spikes on a matte black base yet. Besides, I'm not selling it - it's just for me!).

The finished lamp

I used an old yellow second-hand lamp. First I scrubbed it to death with some sandpaper (very important), wrapped masking tape over the bulb and cord and then painted it outside with a matte black spray-paint. I ordered the spikes online from a shop on ebay. I think they're meant for decorating mobile phones, haha.

Then I set up a ridiculous contraption to keep the lamp horizontal while I glues the spikes on, abandoned that when it didn't work and drove myself half mad trying to hold it like a club and stick them on without the glue slipping off before it dried. Yay.

I guess it worked though: here's the finished cactusy looking lamp. There are a few faults and you can see some of the scuff marks where I sanded it, but I think it came out ok.

And here it is with the light plugged in and switched. The shade's a bit thin and cheap so I'll probably get a better one to replace it, but it'll do for now.

Daydreams

Here's a bunch of low contrast images I whipped up from some photos I've taken the past couple of weeks because everyone seems to be into low contrast these days and I don't see why I shouldn't have some fun with it myself, dammit.

Drawing in the studio with a coffee and a winter spice scented candle. 

It turns out that coffee plus a little drop of rose extract equals turkish delight hot chocolate. Who knew

Crystal corner in the loo. Most of these were given to me by my dad at some point over the years

My sister got me this ring. I love it because it reminds me of the nome king from Return To Oz

My make-up mirror. This is how I know how to put all the slap on my face so it looks ok

Researching sacred geometry for a logo I'm doing for a client right now

The malachite ash tray where we keep our wedding rings and some of my ear studs

Our Flat!

Well, I thought I'd share some pictures of our new flat! I can't even tell you how excited I am right now about how things are going. I won't be moving in until our we get married in October, but my fiance's living there already. It's so nice to be able to visit him after work and we save a wee bit of money by chilling out at the flat instead of going out for dinner every night (which is still fun to do sometimes obviously!), money that could be better spent on all the work that still needs done to the flat.

This room is the one that will end up being my studio. I can't believe I'll actually have a whole room to spread out and do my work in.

And here's the view out my window, before the windows were all replaced. It's such a light and airy room. With the way the building is facing, we get light in all the rooms, luckily enough.

Standing in the kitchen, looking onto the living room. The floors in the living room and my studio are in cracking condition so we'll be able to do without carpets in those and just do up the floorboards. Jackpot!

Yeah, one of the previous owners wanted halogen lights so they stuck weird boxy false ceilings in almost all of the rooms. We might get rid of them one day, but it'll be a lot of work so for now we're just plastering over the holes and getting nice single light fittings in all the rooms.

A shot of the kitchen before Tim makes a mess of it

Our bedroom. Floorboards are a bit wrecked so we'll have to get a nice carpet.

Needless to say, I was well chuffed when we took off the chipboard covering the side of the bath and found that it wasn't a standard plastic affair, but a proper old-fashioned green bath. With leggy bits. Sweeeet.

This is when we started to move stuff in: a mixture of gifts and hand-me-downs. I can't believe how generous people have been. We're so grateful.

We hired a van to drag all the stuff over. And to pick up some wardrobes from Ikea, haha. 

More parcels in the living room. How cute is this little rocking chair from my aunty?

Christening the new kettle. Ugh, that sounds weird... I didn't pee in it or anything... Anyway! This is the first lot of teas and coffees made in the flat since it's been ours.

The windows are getting done at the moment and once the walls are painted and the floors are done, we'll be able to unpack all of the furniture and (once I've hung up a few skulls) it'll feel more like a flat. I was only there a couple of days ago and I miss being in the flat already so I think that's a good sign. I dropped off a load of baking so the kitchen cupboards don't look so bare and the plan is to cook dinner there tomorrow. Can't wait :)