I started blowing glass again at a studio in berkeley. The guy who runs the place makes sconces for lamps, and he was throwing away a white cylinder that didn’t make the cut. It was about 12″ long, with some marks in the middle from the tools. I cut it down on the saw to keep the good part, and then cold-worked the bottom to make it flat.
The glass is quite thin, and not perfectly round, but after seeing it I had an idea for a small lamp with a wooden base. The wood piece was turned on the lathe, with a slightly loose fit. A cork gasket takes up the extra space and has enough cushion so the glass doesn’t break when it’s pressed onto the wood.
There’s more or less a 1/16″ gap between the wood and the glass, with the wood fitting into the glass about 1/4″ – 3/8″ deep. The wood is Olive, which was easy to turn and has nice grain and color.
The chord has to pass under the base and out the side, so I carved a channel with a gouge. There’s a hole drilled in the center to mount the lamp fixture.
The fixture is ceramic, with a threaded rod fitting through the base and a set nut holding it on the other side. I was going to recess the fixture into the base but didn’t have a drill bit the same diameter as the fixture, so a regular sized bulb sits a little bit higher than the sconce.
A thin strip of cork is cut and glued to the wood with spray adhesive. Then the cork is sanded down to the right thickness, just enough for a tight fit with the glass.
The excess cork on the top edge is cut away with a utility knife and then the outside is block sanded smooth until the glass would fit.
The fixture mounts to the base with a threaded rod and a set nut on the underside.
After some wiring and assembly, the lamp is finished. It still needs an inline switch, but all the hardware stores seem to sell crap so I haven’t found the right one yet.
There’s some chip out in the color where I should have polished deeper, and it’s pretty obvious when the lamp on, but it was a fun and quick project and I finally used the lamp parts that have been sitting around.