|
Shoppers
Online: 47
Home
View Cart
Contacts
What's New
About Us
Guest Book
Links
|
|
The Process
|
| |
Working with resin and driftwood is not for the faint of heart. And if you're not particularly fond of working with very loud, very sharp power tools, you might be better off choosing a different career path.
The first step in the process can be either the most pleasant or the most unpleasant. It depends entirely upon the weather. It all starts with gathering the driftwood. Take a few hours every couple of months to climb up and down the steep shoreline that surrounds Lake Ontario. Once you stuff all that wet, smelly wood into your car and take it home, the wood should set for quite a while in a dry spot. I leave mine to dry for about a year. Once it's dry, check very closely for nails or stones embedded in the wood. Determine the length you'd like the pieces to be and very CAREFULLY make your cuts. I use a very handy compound mitre saw. This is tricky, to say the least. Proceed very slowly, listening for that tell tale "zing" which means you've hit metal hidden in the wood. If you're lucky enough to have all your fingers after cutting your wood, then the hole for the wiring needs to be drilled. Since driftwood is often as hard as granite, this takes some effort. I'd like to tell you I have a giant drill press for this, but in fact, I only have an eight inch press. I use a hammer drill and lots of drill bits. Getting the hole drilled straight through to the other end is a skill that takes quite some time to master. If you hit a knot or a hidden nail, let's just say it can be a painful experience.
Moving on, if you are still functioning with all your body parts, it's time to finish your wood. I sand the wood thoroughly with fine sand paper, but don't over sand and completely eliminate the texture of the wood. Stain, paint or leave natural, then finish it off with polyurethane or in some cases, a coat of resin.
Wiring your lamp is so easy a monkey could do it. So if you have a monkey, you're in luck. If not, insert the lamp pipe or threaded nipple into the hole and secure. Then I run the cord up through the lamp, determine which is the hot wire and which is the neutral and wire it to the socket. I use only UL listed, commercial grade components for all my lamps. I put in a bulb to make sure it works, being careful to plug it in AFTER I've screwed in the bulb, just in case I accidentally stick my fingers into the socket. After you've tazered yourself once or twice, you'll remember that little tidbit of info.
Ok, the lamp is wired and there has been no dimming of the household's lights caused by near electrocution. Your wired lamp must be placed on a piece of plastic or tin foil, something that the resin will not eat through, but will release from. The surface must be completely level or the resin will be lopsided, not a good thing. Mix your resin(s) and pour. Timing is critical if you aren't using any kind of mold. If the resin has set too long, it's too hard and won't even pour. If it has not thickened enough it will just run all over the place like water. Assuming you have waited just the right amount of time, make sure you have on all your safety gear, your exhaust fans are turned on, your dehumidifier is cranked, and your space is dust free. You've got, literally, seconds to mold this resin into a free form shape. Immediately embed rocks, trees, moss, and of course your lamp itself. If you need more time, make your own mold using tin foil and/or plastic. Once the resin(s) are poured, embed various items as the resin cures. This involves a lot of patience and is time consuming but often yields the best results.
Let the resin harden for at least 24 hours. Then you can remove your foil or plastic mold. Place more moss or stones in your lamp base if it needs filling in using a good, strong glue like E6000. Paint or embellish your shade any way you'd like. I put little felt protectors on the bottom of my lamps, or in some cases little feet so it sets up off the surface.
If you're making a floor standing candle lamp, two resin "ponds" must be poured. One "pond" is then mounted onto the piece of driftwood that has been inserted into your bottom "pond". This can be an exasperating task as all of your screws and working parts must be hidden.
And now your lamp is done! This is a very condensed version of how these lamps are made, needless to say, but if I went into every detail it would take you a week to read. It's a time consuming, difficult, messy process, but it's loads of fun, too.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
All Rights
Reserved © 2010 Nature's Nurture Lamps
Website Built with
DIYeStores.com
Visits: 5611
|
|
Shopping
Cart |
|
Cart Value:
$0.00
Cart Items: 0
View Cart |
|
Featured
Products |
|
| Catch a Big One! |
| $68.00 |
|
| Lion Family |
| $38.00 |
|
| W'Otter Ya Doin'? |
| $24.00 |
|
|
Search
Products |
|
Enter Keyword
and click Go to Search Products
|
|