Wednesday, March 12, 2014

It's a Wrap! (or ouch, ouch my aching back)

Months ago, September 2013 to be exact, I decided I wanted a new hanging lamp. I have a paper shade and cord set from Ikea that are cute, but my design style is veering away from all-white-everything. I wanted something metal, more architectural. MAN, those types of lamps cost an arm and a leg and some toes.
Enter Topiary Art Works. I bought two wire spheres, one 14", one 12". After shipping it was about $50, plus two black Ikea cord kits, $60. I was pretty excited, they look like a nice light gold in the picture! Womp, womp, womp... not so nice in real life. Yes they are topiaries made for plants and outdoor use but they arrived dirty and a very raw looking silver color. The horizontal bands were very uneven at the tops and bottoms, making stringing a cord through (like I foolishly imagined) impossible. I was so angry and disappointed in these I set them aside until a few weeks ago.
Enter my boyfriend Nate! I told him I was thinking of permanently giving up on them and he said he'd like a crack at wiring them for me before I threw in the towel completely. What did I have to lose? Well he did a great job. Hands down. It was a different story then! They were still really industrial and dirty, but I don't have anywhere to spray paint them (sad apartment face...) So I decided to just embrace the silver color.

You can see here how dirty it is and how shoddy the top (bottom is the same) openings are. If they were all clipped back this would be a different story for the wiring, but here is what Nate came up with!

Here is what I came up with to make these more inside-home friendly. These are Caron's Simply Soft yarns in Neon Pink and Neon Yellow. I also got a Neon Coral because it was soooo pretty, but decided on pink and yellow for the two lamps.

It begins.

I used a dot of Gorilla Glue in the crack here and pressed the end of the yarn into it. It took a while to dry, but seemed pretty secure when it was. I wrapped around the base a couple times to keep it tight and hidden. It took about 8 hours to wrap the full length of the cord for the first lamp. 8-| I'm not exaggerating. I hardly stopped. Only to stretch, get a snack or two and use the rest room. Every few inches I brushed some super glue on the cord and wrapped over it, so if the yarn was cut somehow the whole thing wouldn't fall to pieces.

My kitty Minnow quite enjoyed the intermediate stages while these were hanging out on the floor. For some reason it seemed like the perfect place to arrange her toys, even going so far as to put her favorite Rat inside the cage haha :)

The second time around I streamlined the process by wrapping the yarn a few times, then pushing it down and tightening it (like you're turning a knob) with my fingers. It was way way faster than wrap, adjust, wrap, adjust. This was more like wrap x 5, adjust. It still took a few hours, but still so much faster than the first one!

I first planned to use a clear bulb, like in the picture above. But when I actually had to turn it on, I didn't like the light it gave. Very harsh. It made the whole place feel somehow 'unfinished'. The bare bulb thing just wasn't for me. That made me feel a little panicked, maybe we did all this work and would love how they looked but hate how they worked!! I tried a 25 watt soft bulb and bingo, soooo much better. It doesn't look as cool as the clear bulb, but it gives light as though it were in a shade! Soft and diffused.

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