Quick update after such a long (long) break from this project. As previously blogged elsewhere, the lamp will indeed be made from a single piece of lilac with the lower portion divided into three legs straddling a stone.
Took months of on-and-off pondering, and some brainstorming, but now, having worked out the next few challenging steps, I can put the “lamp back on!”
Today I took my Dremel to the cracks and splits on one end (after finally deciding which end was up) and began to lay out the twisted lines (following the grain) defining the legs. I’ll need some new attachments that are up to this task – dividing half of a log into thirds on a spiral. Sure, I could have easily cut the base into quarters on the band saw, but I’m afraid I’d break the wood in the next step – steam bending!
So, while I have a sense of where I’m headed, I’m still letting this piece unfold and reveal itself to me. This is not the sort of thing that lends itself to prototyping, what with playing to the natural and unique aspects of the material and all.
-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso -- http://blanchardcreative.etsy.com -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/
4 comments so far
Karson
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25802 posts in 1296 days
posted 1024 days ago
Scott It maybe easier to drill the stone and shove the log up through it :>)
-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †
MsDebbieP
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14159 posts in 1056 days
posted 1024 days ago
are you tingling with excitement???
I can’t wait to see the next step in completion (or process)
-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)
frank
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1503 posts in 1101 days
posted 1024 days ago
Hi Scott;
—-and that piece of lilac is some nice wood!
Lilac is one of the nicest kinds of wood to work with for anything in the way of ‘rustic’. It makes good table and bench legs, lamps and sculpture, all in all a good wood also because of how it shows and wears those cracks and bends of character.
You have undertaken to show us a fine piece of art work.
GODSPEED,
Frank
-- --frank, NH, http://frank.wordpress.com/
scottb
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3402 posts in 1222 days
posted 1023 days ago
Thanks! I really like working lilac. I was fortunate to find such a large piece.
You’re probably right Karson, I may try drilling through stone for the next lamp, this one, while surely more difficult that I’m naively imagining, is just begging me to have three legs… (but I am taking your advice on bending the legs).
-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso -- http://blanchardcreative.etsy.com -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/