Sunday, May 12, 2013

Miscellaneous Things

These are a few random recent things.

First, a few additional detailed LR colour photos. I'm heavily leaning towards the "Shy Blossom". Refer to the prior post for the colour names and info.

The dark green on the left along with the swatch (second colour) is the green from my aunt's living room that I liked so much, but it will look too dark in my house.



Here is the green that is quite popular in the comments, but I find it looks pretty grey/grim/depressing/corpse-like (lol).



The "Shy Blossom" on another wall.



Next is an antique lamp that I recently finished repairing (after several months). This was an old lamp given to me by a good friend of mine as a gift. It's a typical "Mogul Lamp" from the early 1900's (likely 1920s-1940s). This one was missing several pieces, with a few others bent, or needing attention. I forget where she got it from, but I love these lamps, and I was happy to get it.

Here are the "as received" photos of the lamp. Here it is next to one of my other lamps (the one I got from my Mom). NOTE THE SCARY WIRING JOB.



The entire top of the lamp (with the large shade holder and mogul socket) was missing.



This was the halfway point, with the lamp rewired, and parts straightened and repainted (the base) but with the top still missing.



And here's the finished lamp. I just recently found parts for the missing top from another lamp. Unfortunately, the top I got was in a polished chrome finish, so I had to colour-match it with various spray paints in browns and gold to get approximately the right colour.



I touched-up the base again, and got rid of the lighter gold band (it didn't look right).



The gold candle covers were originals from the other parts lamp top that I bought. The old shade was a thrift store find. They are actually fairly easy to find, and usually under 5$.



Shade (borrowed from the other lamp). I'll get another identical one for this lamp. They have it in white or black, but I think I'll stick with white.



Lastly, here's a shot of my "Weather Glass" (or Storm Glass) from this morning. Yesterday morning (and for several days prior), the entire solution was clear with absolutely no crystal formations. It was literally just the white sandy crystals sitting in the bottom. Then just last night, I noticed some of the crystals were forming again in the base.

They are just so incredibly beautiful to look at. It's hard to capture them properly in a photo, but it looks like a patch of ferns, or feathers. Some crystals also started to form at the top. The other really fun and exciting formation is that there are tiny little snow flakes of crystals just floating in the liquid (which I haven't seen very often - the liquid is clear 99% of the time). According to the chart, stars in the liquid usually indicates snow, but I find that unlikely at this time of year, so it may indicate rain.

Since I'm so fascinated by this gizmo, I'll be posting pictures of it from time to time.

12 comments:

  1. The green you've chosen will be just lovely. The lamp looks great - I like the "artistic liberty" you used in the couple of changes. And I totally thought the crystals were feathers! I haven't seen a Weather Glass before, so thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The weather glass is a novelty item that my Dad got me as a random gift (since he knows I like unusual things). It's quite interesting, and they've been around for over 100 years. One of the two main ingredients are camphor crystals and alcohol, but there are a few other chemicals in it. The crystals have actually grown some more since I took the photo. The upper ones are much larger, and the bottom ones have also gotten a bit taller.

      Delete
  2. Yep, still on board with the shy blossom. ;o) Altough i think the colour is most accurate in the picture of your lamp with the nice cabinet (you can barely see it on the left side)it will be warm and inviting. I have never seen a storm glass before. here we have glasses that have floating glass-"ships" in them that sink or rise, giving you a indikation for the temps. Yours ist much more interesting!

    Jenifer

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I also have Galileo Liquid Thermometer, too. I love the look of the glass tube with the coloured indicators in it. I think I might also have a second GLT but I can't remember for sure (and a lot of stuff is still packed). Dad had also gotten me a liquid barometer, too.

      Delete
  3. I am at the point in your photograph, but I can not separate the top part (missing in your photo) from the bottom part (shown in your photo). How did you get them apart?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, I'd love to help with your question, but I have no idea what you're referring to. Which part in which photo, on which item?

      Delete
  4. here I go. So, the mogul candelabra lamp. the actual candelabra part. Do you have to feed the wires through each of the arms? I have searched to infinity, but can't find any actual diagrams of feeding the wires through to the three separate "arms" or branches. On my torchiere lamps, it is the part just under the mogul base.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes you do. Each stem is a hollow tube, and each needs to have a wire (black and white) going to the socket, and connected inside the lamp body to the other terminals.

      Delete
  5. http://www.antiquelampco.com/Lamps/Diffusers.gif "the cluster body". Did you have to run the wires through the cluster body?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. All the connections (marettes, grouped wires, mogul connection to main power, and 3-way switch) all need to be connected in the "cluster body". Out from the cluster body, you have a double wire going to 5 different places: one to the plug (main power), one to each candle socket (x3), and one to the mogul bulb socket.

      Delete
    2. I DID IT! Thank you!! I am so happy, that I bought another one, and fixed that one up too!

      Delete
    3. Awesome! Glad I could help, and I'm also glad that two old lamps have been saved, and put back into service!

      Delete