Thread: Making an Arts and Crafts Lamp

Yeah will be hollow mitred construction for the column the shades are traditionally sheets of mica stuck together with shellac - and can be bent/curved with heat. Always fragile but has a nice warmth about the light. Can be bought on the net -well look. Mostly seen in America 1920s. do LIKE the look warm and glowing. traditionaly goes with copper and oak.

Thanks for that. The more I look at this project the more its clear that my skills aren't up to it yet. I need to do some simpler projects with mitres before attempting this.

I did find a source of mica sheeting in the US. Oddly it seems to originate in India but is only sold through US sites.

I'll post an update if I make any progress on this.

Steve

Oops...duplicate post and I can't delete. I will add that I found a nice piece of quarter sawn QLD Silky Oak for this project. Much lighter than the original shown but should have the right feel for this kind of design.

Steve

You could miter it or just plane four flat pieces and glue it up. I think both methods leaving the column hollow then lead to other problems like how do you fit the column to its base and what happens at the top ?
Fit it over Blocks at both ends that match the inside ? Sounds fiddly . Probably gluing the four sides around internal blocks at each end would be the way .

Another way would be doing it solid . Starting by cutting the over size material in half down the length , then rout or plane or chisel a half round slot down what will be each inside edge for the electric cord. Carefully glue it back together so no glue ends up in the cord hole. Mark out and plane up the outside taper leaving the column to long.

I would now plug the holes in each end with temporary timber wedges and saw them off flush with the ends so I could put the column in a wood lathe and turn the finished length and shoulders leaving a turned end at top and bottom that can be fitted into a drilled hole in the base and top . Neat fast and strong construction .
You probably don't have a lathe do you ?
So you could mark out and saw tenons that can be fitted at the base and the top plates maybe .

Its a nice Lamp. Think Id like a couple myself .

Rob

Some interesting ideas! The solid option is used in the plans I linked, it would be much easier to construct but not as neat as the mitred box I feel. I do have a lathe as it happens and that's an interesting option for joining to the base.

The thing that made me pause and think was the shade construction. Where the base mitres are close to 45 degrees those on the shade need to be about 35. So I'd need to rig up two different mitre jigs or some kind of variable angle one. Plus I'd need to make them all accurately...that's the part that has me thinking I need to practice a bit more.

My plan is to try a few mitred boxes first to get my eye in, then think some more about this project.

Thanks for the input.

Steve