Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Hanging Lights

I had a reader from the Yahoo Greene and Greene group I belong to request information on an Arts & Crafts style hanging pool table lamp. I built a couple of hanging lamps about 6 years ago for a client and went back and found the photos and drawings. I was just learning CAD then and the drawings are cluttery and crude, but still, (possibly), legible. Click them to enlarge them so you can read em ... Between the drawings and the photos and maybe by making yourself a full size cardboard mockup (which we did at the time ) once you have the parts on hand, you should be able to piece together your own lamp design. The crude steel hangers we made when my son was just starting to fool around with metalworking. As I recall, we had an anvil and maybe a forge, but not much else, including experience ... with some tinkering on site though it all worked out ... I've always wanted to build more of these, but the clients just never appeared ... They take some time and therefore aren't cheap ... Leave a comment if you have a question or send me an email through my website ... I have also added a "greene and greene' category to my blog. I'm not a strict reproductionist of any style, but I do enjoy using some of their elements and influences in my own designs ...

Shows some dimensions and inlay layout though i'm certain they are not totally accurate.

Other early cad versions .. I think the lamp should be roughly a little longer than the spot to spot dimension of the table to get the light over the whole surface.


The finished lamp with the other lamp in the background

Lamp over the table (+/- 30" above it in this instance ... I prefer them a little lower than this client did

Looking up .. commercial brass lamp parts purchased at the local lighting store .. Also not the copper heat shield spaced down an inch from the wood top. The wood top had slots to let the heat escape too .. I think in the end we used flood style bulbs ...

Ceiling support ... a simplified version of the ceiling plate on the light below, secured with round head screws

Our first hanging fixture, actually, coincidentally, over the dining table in a recent post about a table leaf. The lit panels are big leaf maple burl veneer on the outside, attached with 3m Spray 90, to plexiglass panels, held into rabbets with small brads

Looking up into that fixture ... four bulbs, hand blown and cut glass rondells, copper heat shield and slots in the fixture top .. It gives off a very warm funky light with interesting shadows from the rondells..

The whole fixture including the ceiling support and sconces we made in the background


this project was completed just as i was starting to do my own cad drawings. what i have assembled above here is all that i have, but with a little effort and imagination and picture staring, you can probably get a pretty good idea of the overall size of the hanging fixture ... top drawings with the hatched slots shows the cut outs for the heat to escape ... good luck

1 comment:

Jeff Branch said...

Really sharp looking - great job.